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HOW   TO    LIVE   IN   THE 
COUNTRY 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2011  with  funding  from 

Boston  Library  Consortium  IVIember  Libraries 


http://www.archive.org/details/howtoliveincountOOpowe 


Fholograph   by  Paul   Thompson. 

THE  ROAD  TO  THE  COUNTRY  HO.ME 


AND  HAPPIXESS 


HOW    TO     LIVE 
IN  THE  COUNTRY 


BY 

E.  P.   POWELL 

IVti/i  a  Fore-word  by  N.  O.  Nelson 

ILLUSTRATED 


NEW    YORK 
OUTING   PUBLISHING    COMPANY 

MCMXI 


p^ 


Copyright,  igii,  by 
OUTING  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 


Entered  at  Stationers'  Hall,  London,  England 
All  rights  reserved 


FOREWORD 

BY  N.  O.  NELSON 

In  writing  a  foreword  to  this  book,  I  am  spokes- 
man for  a  multitude  of  readers,  who  join  me  In  deep 
gratitude  to  the  author  for  the  practical  wisdom  and 
the  joyful  spirit  he  has  put  Into  his  writings.  He 
speaks  from  his  own  experience,  and  he  knows  birds 
as  well  as  Burroughs,  fruit  as  well  as  Burbank,  in- 
tensive farming  better  than  Kropotkin,  and  more 
than  any  other  writer  does  he  know  the  whole  round 
of  farm  life  and  country  attractions. 

In  exploiting  the  positive  delights  of  country  life 
Mr.  Powell  has  no  rival.  He  takes  them  all  In;  the 
beauty,  the  poetry,  the  health,  independence,  and 
daily  interests.  There  arc  pitfalls  in  farm  life,  not 
the  least  of  which  are  the  exaggerated  hopes,  in- 
spired by  special  crops,  machinery,  pedigreed  ani- 
mals, climate,  and  market;  he  leads  us  into  none  of 
these.  He  advocates  the  farm  as  a  home,  not  for 
exploiting  hobbies,  but  where  one  may  live  a  full  life, 
round  and  rich. 

I  go  back  to  my  boyhood  when  we  had  another 
kind  of  farming,  with  more  acres  and  ruder  ways. 
We  raised  our  living,  and  had  something  to  sell. 
There  was  school  in  winter  and  work  all  the  time. 


FOREWORD 

Hired  hands  were  rare  exceptions,  and  so  were  ten- 
ants. Every  man  with  every  member  of  his  family 
worked  his  own  farm;  was  industrious,  independent, 
and  needed  little  that  he  could  not  raise. 

To  go  from  that  picture  to  the  great  factory  mul- 
titudes of  to-day  may  well  make  angels  weep.  One 
city  family  out  of  ten  may  own  its  own  home,  but 
not  one-half  that  number  has  a  month's  living  ahead. 
A  panic  is  a  disaster,  and  old  age  is  a  calamity.  We 
know  from  history  that  a  country's  yeomanry  is  its 
strength  and  the  city  rabble  its  destruction.  It 
needs  all  the  enlightenment  and  warning  of  books 
like  this  to  help  stem  the  tide,  and  If  possible  to 
turn  it. 

You  readers  know  that  Mr.  Powell  has  never  writ- 
ten a  dull  article,  or  misstated  facts,  or  wasted  a 
paragraph  on  an  idea  not  worth  the  while.  But  few 
of  you  have  seen,  as  I  have,  the  nine  acres  on  which 
he  has  these  forty  years  learned  the  solemn  facts 
which  he  Is  telling  us.  Nearly  eighty  years  of  age, 
his  farm  and  his  pen  are  as  prolific  as  ever.  George 
Jacob  Holyoake  wrote  that  great  book,  "  Bygones 
Worth  Remembering,"  in  his  ninetieth  year;  Ed- 
ward Everett  Hale  did  some  of  his  best  work  In 
his  eighty-ninth  year;  and  Mr.  Powell  shows  a  de- 
fiance of  years  in  recently  making  himself  a  winter 
farm  home  in  Florida.  He  migrates  with  the  wiser- 
than-we  birds  to  his  New  York  home  in  time  for 
pruning  and  planting  and  to  his  lakeside  Florida 
home  after  harvesting. 


FOREWORD 

The  fatal  trend  toward  the  deadly  city  no  preach- 
ing has  been  able  to  stop,  but  toward  saving  some  of 
the  more  rational  no  one  has  done  so  much  as  Mr. 
Powell  with  his  fascinating,  true,  and  persuasive 
stories  about  all  sides  of  country  life.  "  Back  to  the 
land  "  is  no  longer  the  slogan  with  which  we  must 
do  our  work,  but  "  Stay  on  the  land  where  you  are  " ; 
and  to  this  we  all  say  amen.  It  is  his  noble  senti- 
ment and  fixed  opinion,  which  he  delightfully  illus- 
trates, that  farming  is  the  highest  and  best  of  call- 
ings; full  of  interest,  responsive  to  Intelligence  and 
skill,  building  health,  manhood,  and  independence. 
It  pleases  me  much  to  have  the  opportunity  of  put- 
ting a  foreword  to  this  book;  I  wish  it  may  have 
a  million  readers,  keep  a  million  boys  from  straying 
away  from  the  farm  to  the  factory,  and  that  it  may 
be  translated  into  a  score  of  languages. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.    Finding  the  Place ii 

II.  First  Steps  Toward  the  Home  .......    33 

III.  Building  the  House 56 

IV.  About  Making  Gardens 79 

V.  Planning  for  Beauty  in  Lawns  and  Shrubbery  .  105 

VI.    Our  Rivals 129 

VII.     Our    Allies 152 

VIII.    In  Our  Orchards 172 

IX.     Finding  and  Making  Soil 193 

X.  Manual  Training  in  the  Country  Home  .     .     .213 

XL    Fine  Arts  of  a  Country  Home 233 

XII.     Can  We  Make  it  Pay 254 

XIII.    The  Social  Side  of  Country  Life 278 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

The  Road  to  the  Country  Home  —  and  Happiness     Frontispiece 

FACING   PAGE 

An  Old  House  Is  Good  Raw  Material  for  a  Real  Home  .  .  20 
Trellises  Cost  Little  and  Make  Beautiful  Garden  Fences  .  42 
Rough  Stone  and  a  Little  Skill  Will  Work  Wonders    .     .     60 

Women  Have  Their  Place  in  Outdoor  Work 82 

There  Is  No  Age-Limit  in  Gardening 100 

Even  the  Barn  Should  Have  Its  Share  of  Vines  and  Hedges  120 

A  Good  Horse  Is  Your  Best  Hired  Man 140 

Give  the  Fences  and  Shrubbery  a  Chance  at  Your  Hoitse  .  162 
Teach  the  Children  to  Work  with  Hands  and  Braitt     .     .  180 

The  Potato  Harvest 200 

Cultivate  the  Use  of  Labor-Saving  Machinery  .....  220 

A  Brook  Combines  Beauty  and  Usefulness 236 

What  Can  Be  Done  on  a  Small  Scale  with  Pond  Lilies  .  .  252 
The  Coimtry-Home  Maker  Must  Not  Be  Afraid  of  Hard 

Work 270 

Where  Vines  and  Flowers  Cover  the  Signs  of  Age  .     .     .  288 


HOW    TO    LIVE   IN   THE 
COUNTRY 


HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE 
COUNTRY 

CHAPTER  I 

FINDING  THE  PLACE 

I  PROPOSE  a  book  that  shall  be  helpful  to  those 
who  desire  to  create  country  homes.  I  shall 
let  the  mansions  well  enough  alone,  for  I  have 
no  interest  in  seeing  costly  residences  on  our  hill- 
sides that  few  can  afford  to  occupy  and  that  no  one 
can  make  pay.  These  are  extravagances  that  are 
apt  to  display  only  the  wealth  of  their  owners.  They 
create  tenantry  and  retinues  of  servants  instead  of 
freeholders  and  free  men.  They  are  not  a^  growth 
of  the  land,  coming  up  out  of  the  needs  of  the  peo- 
ple, but  they  are  a  transplantation  of  the  city  into 
the  country;  and  wherever  they  are,  the  simplicity 
of  Nature  Is  compelled  to  give  way  to  the  artificiality 
of  display.  The  violet  goes,  and  the  lotus  pond 
comes  In;  and  there  is  nowhere  a  smell  of  the  wild 
mint  left. 

What  I  shall  hold  myself  to  strictly  is  helping 
the  men  of  moderate  means,  who  intend  to  live 

II' 


12    HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

wider  and  warmer  and  think  nobler  and  develop 
both  food  and  character  by  intimacy  with  Nature. 
I  have  a  warm  feeling  for  those  who  are  tired  of 
city  life  or  town  life,  and  desire  to  react  from  arti- 
ficiality. 

In  1890  the  census  told  us  that  the  cities  were  re- 
ceiving over  sixty-six  per  cent  of  the  Increase  of 
population,  although  I  believe  the  tide  was  even  then 
slowly  turning.  In  1900  It  was  found  that  only 
a  little  over  thirty  per  cent  of  the  annual  Increase 
dropped  Into  city  congestion  —  notwithstanding  the 
enormous  increase  of  Immigration.  This  was  a 
splendid  showing  for  the  country  and  country  life, 
and  we  are  happy  to  know  that  the  ratio  has  been 
steadily  Increasing  ever  since.  At  present  there  Is 
not  much  over  twenty  per  cent  of  the  people  lost  to 
the  hills  and  valleys,  that  Is  the  new  folk. 

This,  of  course,  does  not  mean  that  the  cities  are 
decreasing  In  size;  only  that  their  ratio  of  growth, 
with  the  single  exception  of  New  York  City,  Is  grow- 
ing less.  It  means  that  country  life  has  at  last  at- 
tractions that  counter-balance  the  attractions  of  the 
town.  The  country  telephone,  rural  free  mail  de- 
livery, and  the  trolley  are  a  triple  alliance  to  make 
the  home  In  the  remote  glen  or  the  farm  on  the 
mountainside  hardly  more  Isolated  than  the  apart- 
ment In  a  city  flat.  Neighbors  are  joined  together 
so  that  they  can  converse  freely  and  cooperate  more 
easily.  The  trolley  Is  even  hauling  farmers'  wagons 
to  market;  backing  up  to  the  barn  doors  and  taking 


FINDING  THE  PLACE  13 

long  trains  of  grain  as  well  as  passengers.  The 
automobile  is  going  farther,  although  for  the  pres- 
ent it  has  not  outgrown  its  aristocratic  youth.  Any 
town  with  half  a  dozen  of  these  motors  is  quite  as  in- 
dependent as  a  town  on  a  railroad  line  served  once 
a  day  by  a  freight  train. 

At  any  rate  the  spirit  of  "  back  to  the  land  "  has 
gained  a  wonderful  momentum,  and  nothing  better 
can  be  done  with  our  experience  than  to  sift  it  care- 
fully for  the  help  of  those  who  are  quitting  the  con- 
gested street  for  the  sod  and  rose  lawn.  It  is  not 
so  simple  a  problem  as  appears  on  the  surface,  for 
the  country  is  far  from  having  a  welcome  for  all 
comers,  nor  is  It  ready  to  locate  and  support  an 
indefinite  number  of  applicants  who  have  no  knowl- 
edge of  earth  culture.  So  far  as  knowledge  is  con- 
cerned, much  less  is  required  of  the  city  dweller,  who 
has  little  more  to  do  than  to  furnish  his  "  apart- 
ments," or  hire  a  conventional  house  and  pay  his 
rent  and  water  taxes. 

But  if  you  would  have  a  garden,  or  a  farm,  or  a 
fruit  orchard  you  must  know  what  you  are  about, 
and  you  must  study  every  tree  and  every  shrub ;  you 
must  know  the  soil  and  the  lay  of  the  land 
thoroughly.  You  must  know  a  good  deal  about 
the  birds  of  the  locality,  for  that  counts  very  heavily 
in  gathering  your  crops;  some  birds  are  your  best 
allies,  while  others  are  a  serious  pest;  you  must 
know  a  good  deal  more  about  insects,  for  the  beetles 
and  moths  are  your  main  rivals;  and  then  you  can- 


14     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

not  safely  be  ignorant  of  simple  botany  —  you  must  at 
least  know  the  difference  between  poison  ivy  and  Vir- 
ginia creeper. 

When  planting  you  have  to  choose  from  a  cata- 
logue of  one  hundred  varieties  of  apples,  fifty  of 
pears,  and  twenty-five  of  cherries.  You  cannot  grow 
more  than  a  dozen  probably  —  perhaps  only  five  of 
each  class.  You  must  find  out  which  suits  your  soil 
and  your  climate,  and  which  are  most  subject  to 
local  diseases  and  insect  foes.  So  with  everything 
you  touch.  There  is  no  question  about  your  making 
mistakes ;  the  aim  is  to  help  you  make  as  few  as 
possible.  You  are  at  once  to  take  up  the  role  of 
student  and  become  an  investigator. 

In  other  words,  anyone  who  would  become  a  coun- 
try home-maker  is  confronted,  at  the  very  outset, 
with  the  demand  that  he  become  something  of  an 
ornithologist,  a  geologist,  a  botanist,  and  an  entomolo- 
gist. Of  course  he  will  be  an  amateur  and  a  begin- 
ner, but  a  sincere  student  he  must  be,  or  fail.  This 
is  much  more  true  than  formerly,  because  our  insect 
rivals  are  increasing  in  number,  and  the  art  of  com- 
bating them  is  complex,  while  the  number  of  fruits 
and  vegetables  has  been  multiplied  by  one  hundred. 
A  well-organized  country  home  is  an  affair  not  too 
often  found. 

At  the  outset  you  are  liable  to  make  serious  blund- 
ers in  location.  A  good  deal  of  the  land  is  not  in 
a  condition  suitable  for  an  amateur  home-maker, 
and  I  am  sorry  to  tell  you  that  this  is  the  very  land 


FINDING  THE  PLACE  15 

that  will  be  offered  you  with  all  sorts  of  advertise- 
ment and  promises.  Do  not  buy  an  acre  of  soil  until 
you  have  personally  examined  it,  and  even  then  you 
must  judge  with  a  bias  against  the  proposition.  At 
least  two-fifths  of  New  York  State  knows  nothing 
about  tillage,  is  still  in  the  swamp  or  brushwood 
state;  and  there  are  millions  of  acres  in  the  United 
States  that  even  experts  cannot  subject  to  purposes  of 
home-making. 

Within  easy  reach  of  New  York  City  there  are 
hundreds  of  acres  unsuitable  for  homesteads,  owing 
to  the  impossibility  of  good  drainage,  or  the  uncon- 
trollable presence  of  insects,  or  for  other  reasons. 
The  mosquito  owns  a  good  slice  of  New  Jersey  and 
one  third  of  the  State  of  Florida,  and  a  good  deal 
more  all  the  way  up  and  down  the  coast.  Degenera- 
tion has  followed  those  who  undertook  to  live  In 
some  of  the  higher  lands  of  the  Alleghenles.  Flat, 
moist,  and  mucky  land  will  be  all  right  for  truck  gar- 
dening, but  those  who  are  going  for  health  as  well  as 
pleasure  and  profit  must  avoid  any  location  Infected 
with  malaria  and  supplied  with  Insects  to  convey  the 
poison. 

The  first  point  to  consider  is  a  soil  of  sufficient 
depth  to  respond  to  cultivation.  It  is  true  that  you 
must  make  soil  for  yourself,  and  In  another  chapter 
we  shall  talk  over  that  matter  very  thoroughly.  It 
Is  not  true  that  you  cannot  create  soil  for  yourself, 
and  a  good  deal  of  this  you  must  do  In  the  best 
localities ;  but  If  you  begin  on  a  barren  piece  of  soil 


1 6     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

you  start  at  a  great  disadvantage  and  are  not  likely 
to  remain  long  in  the  country. 

I  do  not  know  of  any  easier  way,  as  a  general  rule, 
to  judge  of  the  soil  than  by  the  size  and  thrift  of  the 
trees  that  are  growing  In  it.  If  you  find  a  huge  apple 
tree,  or  a  grove  of  fine  maples,  or  oak  trees  spread- 
ing themselves  over  a  diameter  of  sixty  feet,  or  even 
pine  trees  standing  eighty  feet  high,  do  not  be  afraid 
of  the  soil,  even  If  it  Is  very  sandy.  If  you  wish 
to  grow  fruit,  as  a  rule  you  must  prefer  good  strong 
clay,  with  about  twenty  per  cent  of  sand;  if  you  want 
to  grow  celery  and  other  vegetables  mucky  soil  with 
a  good  admixture  of  sand  should  be  the  chief  point 
to  consider. 

As  a  rule,  low  land  is  colder  than  high  land,  and 
a  slope  of  hillsides  to  the  east  is  decidedly  preferable 
for  a  long-growing  season.  You  may  even  find  that 
a  short  distance  of  an  eighth  of  a  mile  will  make  a 
difference  of  two  months,  by  cutting  off  the  latest 
frost  in  the  spring  and  the  earliest  in  autumn. 

The  lay  of  the  land  is  important  for  more  reasons 
than  I  have  hinted  above.  The  morning  sun  Is  the 
growing  sun,  and  this  you  will  discover  by  examining 
a  conservatory  on  the  east  front  of  a  house  as  com- 
pared with  one  on  the  west.  Gathering  the  sun's 
heat  during  the  day  much  more  freely,  these  eastern 
dells  and  swales  will  bring  to  perfection  fruits  that 
cannot  be  grown  successfully  in  any  other  location. 

This  Is  not  quite  true  of  peaches,  for  the  chief 
trouble  with  their  fruit  buds  is  that  they  are  started 


FINDING  THE  PLACE  17 

or  softened  by  winter  suns,  and  in  this  way  are  less 
liable  to  resist  late  frosts.  So  if  you  are  designing 
to  plant  a  peach  orchard  you  want  a  northern  ex- 
posure. This  is  partly  true  of  some  of  our  pear 
trees  and  cherry  trees.  Winter  thawing  is  more  dan- 
gerous than  a  steady  all  winter  freezing. 

If  possible,  select  easy  slopes  that  take  drainage 
readily,  rather  than  steeper  hillsides  that  carry  off 
the  water  with  a  dash,  and  with  it  a  great  deal  of 
soil.  This  is  one  of  the  chief  troubles  with  our 
country-home  life,  that  we  are  losing  soil  by  winter 
wash  and  summer  showers  —  often  faster  than  we 
are  making  it. 

You  will  be  surprised,  perhaps,  at  my  placing  the 
matter  of  wind-breaks  so  prominently  in  my  advice 
as  to  location.  If  you  cannot  snuggle  down  behind 
a  hill  to  break  the  force  of  dominant  winds,  see  if 
you  cannot  get  behind  a  nice  bit  of  forest,  or  at  least 
a  line  of  woodland.  If  you  cannot,  you  must  make 
a  wind-break  as  soon  as  possible.  At  all  events,  let 
it  be  kept  clearly  In  mind  while  selecting  a  location 
that  you  do  not  wish  to  plant  your  house  where  the 
full  blast  of  northeasters  or  northwesters  will  strike 
against  you.  They  will  not  only  put  an  edge  on  your 
climate  and  uproot  your  trees,  but  they  will  sweep 
the  moisture  off  your  land  and  make  you  the  victim 
of  drought. 

We  shall  talk  a  good  deal  more  about  this  by  and 
by,  but  meanwhile  If  you  can  get  the  protection  of 
an  already-grown  wind-break  it  will  count  enormously 


1 8     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

for  your  comfort  and  your  crops.  Look  out  for  a 
good  evergreen  screen;  but  best  of  all  is  it  to  nestle 
down  in  the  warm  hollows  under  a  ridge  of  hills. 

It  is  absolutely  necessary  that  your  country  prop- 
erty be  capable  of  good  drainage,  and  it  is  equally 
necessary  that  it  get  such  drainage.  This  does  not 
always  demand  a  hillside,  or  even  much  of  a  slope, 
but  for  health  and  for  tillage  alike  it  is  an  absolute 
requisite;  without  health  you  had  far  better  be  In 
the  city.  There  are  locations  also  which  become  un- 
desirable because  they  take  the  wash  of  neighbors' 
drains.  The  lav/  will  hardly  protect  you  in  such  a 
case,  and  if  it  does,  lawing  is  the  last  thing  that  you 
wish  to  engage  in.  I  would  make  sure  not  to  buy 
my  way  Into  a  quarrel. 

Involved  In  this  drainage  problem  Is,  once  more, 
that  of  soil  wash.  Many  of  our  hillsides  are  being 
denuded  of  all  valuable  dirt  and  fertilizers  are  swept 
away  as  fast  as  they  are  applied.  Look  out  for  this, 
of  course,  in  your  purchasing;  that  Is,  select  your 
property  with  a  clear  vision  and  a  certain  knowledge 
as  to  Its  being  easily  drained  and  not  too  easily 
washed.  In  future  chapters  this  subject  will  come  up 
for  careful  discussion. 

The  highways  of  the  United  States  are  In  a  transi- 
tion state,  and  they  will  not  count  so  seriously  In  mak- 
ing the  choice  of  a  homestead  after  the  reign  of 
the  automobile  Is  well  established.  This  new  gaso- 
line power  belongs  to  the  people  after  all  —  al- 
though the  farmer  has  had  something  of  a  tussle  at 


FINDING  THE  PLACE  19 

the  outset.  It  is  going  to  make  our  whole  farm 
property  suburban  and  enable  every  village  to  com- 
municate almost  as  readily  with  the  market  as  those 
on  railroad  lines  can  do  at  present.  It  demands  and 
is  securing  a  revolution  in  road-making.  In  fact,  it 
is  going  to  boulevard  the  whole  country. 

At  present,  however,  you  must  take  into  account 
the  condition  of  the  roadway  very  seriously  when 
selecting  your  site.  The  difference  between  good 
roads  and  bad  roads  is  at  least  one-third,  often  two- 
thirds,  in  hauling.  Then,  if  you  are  to  consider  your 
personal  comfort,  there  is  hardly  one  thing  that 
affects  it  more  than  the  kind  of  road  you  are  allowed 
to  use.  I  have  seen  carriages  dragged  through  mud 
up  to  the  hubs,  and  the  owners  soon  grew  sick  of 
country  life.  The  art  of  road-making  is  not  to  be 
commanded  out  of  hand  by  an  ordinary  pathmaster, 
but  the  control  of  our  roads  is  so  steadily  passing  over 
to  State  and  county  commissioners  that  the  change 
for  the  better  will  assuredly  go  on  much  more  rapidly. 

Select  a  location  where  you  will  not  suffer  from 
primitive  habits  the  moment  you  step  off  your  prop- 
erty. There  are  sections,  as  in  Florida,  where  roads 
are  only  trails  under  the  pines,  and  this  is  a  shady 
and  convenient  way  of  going  cross-woods  to  neigh- 
bors or  to  market;  but  our  Northern  homes  arc 
reached  only  by  straight  lines  and  square  corners, 
with  fences  on  both  sides  — "  a  right  down  wasteful 
way,  suh!  "  says  my  negro  plowman,  "  and  right  hot, 
too,  I  reckon." 


20     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

All  of  which  means  look  out  for  shady  roads,  and 
do  not  buy  where  the  people  have  squatted  down  with- 
out regard  to  comfort  or  beauty.  Besides,  the  time 
may  come  when  you  wish  to  sell,  and  in  that  case  a 
well-shaded  home,  reached  by  a  well-shaded  and  well- 
kept  avenue  will  double  the  market  price  of  your 
property. 

You  will  naturally  look  out  for  the  schoolhouse 
and  the  church  and  the  store  and  the  depot  and  for 
the  sort  of  neighbors  you  are  to  find.  Children 
should  not  be  compelled  to  go  a  very  long  distance 
to  school,  although  town  schools  are  now  sweeping 
out  the  district  schools.  The  old  red  schoolhouse  is 
about  done  for,  and  I  am  glad  of  it;  but  where  there 
is  no  public  conveyance  to  the  town  graded  school  it 
is  hard  on  the  boys  and  girls  if  they  are  compelled  to 
go  more  than  a  mile. 

It  is  not  improbable,  however,  that  many  of  the 
new  country  home-makers  will  do,  what  I  have  done 
myself,  employ  tutors  at  home.  Every  country 
homestead  has  its  own  material  at  hand,  and  the  chil- 
dren need  but  little  guidance  to  make  them  fairly  ex- 
pert in  half  a  dozen  sciences.  Nor  will  they  get  a 
good  knowledge  of  country  life  and  country  work  in 
any  other  way  than  by  careful  home  training. 

Country  churches  are  now  almost  entirely  deserted 
in  many  places,  so  here  again  comes  in  the  question 
of  how  far  are  you  willing  to  live  from  the  village 
or  the  town  church.  This  weekly  gathering  in  the 
country  is  hardly  a  question  of  religious  faith,  but  of 


FINDING  THE  PLACE  21 

social  life,  and  most  people  cannot  afford  to  neglect 
it.  Only  those  who  have  large  libraries  and  peculiar 
facilities  in  the  way  of  culture  can  get  along  without 
the  weekly  meeting.  Even  to  this  class  there  is  a 
good  deal  lost. 

As  for  neighbors  they  are  a  good  deal  what  we 
make  them,  as  a  rule,  yet  after  all  there  are  neighbor- 
hoods where  one  would  not  like  to  cast  in  his  lot.  I 
advise  you  to  know  a  little  at  least  about  this  matter 
before  you  decide  on  your  purchase. 

A  good  brook  is  money  and  joy  in  one,  and  I  think 
so  much  of  a  beautiful  stream  of  water  that  I  should 
count  it  a  very  important  item  in  selecting  a  country 
home.  It  is  half  of  life  to  children,  turning  their 
mimic  water  wheels,  and  it  will  come  very  handy 
to  irrigate  your  strawberries  and  help  you  through 
a  drought  that  threatens  to  destroy  your  garden. 
The  talking  of  a  brook  will  put  a  lot  of  poetry  into 
your  daily  life,  and  I  can  easily  Imagine  how  the 
mother  of  the  household  will  find  a  bend  where  she 
can  place  her  easy  chair,  and,  under  a  beech  or  an 
apple  tree,  let  the  rippling  and  the  singing  sweeten 
her  thoughts  and  drive  away  care. 

Then  again  the  time  is  coming  when  every  farmer 
who  can  command  a  bit  of  water  power  will  have  his 
own  plant  for  electric  lighting  and  a  good  deal  of 
machine  work.  At  any  rate,  he  may  carry  It  to  his 
barns  as  water  power,  or  to  his  house,  to  be  used  in 
case  of  fire,  or  possibly  provide  pure  spring  water 
for  consumption.     In  any  case,  look  about  to  see  if 


22     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

there  Is  a  brook  on  hand.  I  have  a  bit  of  a  stream 
running  quietly  through  my  apple  cellar  to  prevent 
the  shriveling  of  fruit;  then  it  winds  on  to  where  I 
can  use  it  among  my  berries. 

Be  very  careful  that  you  do  not  overlook  your 
surroundings.  At  one  time  I  was  beset  from  the  rear 
with  ungoverned  youngsters  who  made  fruit  grow- 
ing something  of  a  tax.  I  planted  along  the  fences 
the  roughest  sort  of  blackberry  bushes,  until  my  Kit- 
tatinnies  and  Snyders  constituted  a  sort  of  body  guard 
and  fruit  guard  that  kept  out  all  marauders.  It  is 
better,  however,  to  know  what  you  are  to  guard 
against  and  to  find  out  also  what  sort  of  exposure 
you  will  have  to  wild  animals.  Wood  chucks  in  the 
corn,  weasels  and  skunks  in  the  chicken  yard,  foxes 
occasionally,  and  hawks  and  owls  overhead  can  make 
things  very  lively  about  a  country  home.  It  is  just  as 
well  to  avoid  these  fellows  if  you  can,  but  fight  them 
if  you  must. 

I  shall  teach  you  by  and  by  how  to  make  a  good 
rear,  but  It  is  better  to  buy  one  already  made. 
Beauty  of  outlook  Is  the  poetry  side  of  the  country, 
but  poetry  Is  only  the  butter  on  our  daily  bread.  We 
must  look  out  for  the  bread  as  well.  A  vineyard 
of  grapes  that  has  cost  us  a  good  deal  of  money  and 
labor  ought  not  to  be  at  the  mercy  of  either  birds  or 
boys.  We  shall  have  enough  to  contend  with  along 
this  line  at  the  best;  so  I  recommend  you  to  know 
fairly  well  what  you  will  have  to  do,  before  you 
begin. 


FINDING  THE  PLACE  23 

Every  country  home  ought  not  only  to  furnish  its 
own  fruits,  vegetables,  eggs,  chickens,  flowers,  etc., 
but  in  some  direction  there  should  be  a  surplus  for 
market  —  in  other  vi'ords,  every  country  home,  small 
or  big,  should  pay  its  own  way.  This  makes  it  very 
desirable  that  you  locate  not  too  far  from  city  or 
town.  It  is  true  that  I  am  advocating  the  building 
of  homes  in  the  country,  but  for  the  present  we  are 
not  able  to  command  the  conditions  of  transporta- 
tion. This  will  come  about  in  due  time,  so  that  any- 
one may  have  his  garden  stuff  fifty  or  one  hundred 
miles  from  market,  and  reach  the  consumer  early  in 
the  morning.  At  present  the  vegetable  or  fruit 
grower  can  drive,  each  morning,  ten  to  fifteen  miles 
and  reach  his  customers  in  time  —  that  is,  before 
nine  or  ten  o'clock.  Most  of  his  supplies  will  be 
in  demand  by  that  hour,  and  it  will  compel  him  to  be 
a  very  early  riser.   . 

A  little  nearer  the  market  will  be  better,  but  if 
you  have  private  customers,  which  is  always  desir- 
able, you  must  not  live  more  than  twenty  miles  from 
their  residences.  You  understand,  or  you  will  learn 
as  you  go  on,  that  a  good  deal  of  your  fruit,  such 
as  berries,  will  not  keep  over  until  the  second  day. 
They  must  be  picked  one  day  and  delivered  the  next 
morning. 

If  you  cannot  locate  yourself  as  I  am  suggesting, 
you  must  look  out  for  some  sort  of  public  conveyance. 
The  trolley  cars  in  some  of  our  Western  States  are 
already  drawing  long  lines  of  truck  and   fruit  to 


24     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

market,  in  vehicles  owned  and  loaded  by  the  growers. 
We  shall  see  more  of  this,  and  I  am  not  sure  but  that 
the  automobile  will  very  soon  become  the  country 
man's  market  wagon.  I  am  assuming  that  nearly  all 
country  home-makers  will  soon  have  a  surplus  prod- 
uct of  some  sort  to  dispose  of  and  that  nearly  all 
will  need  to  find  a  convenient  place  of  sale.  I  must 
not  make  this  an  absolute  rule,  for  there  will  be  a 
minority  even  in  the  country  who  will  have  no  taste 
for  gardening  and  orcharding. 

How  many  acres  does  the  country  home-seeker  re- 
quire? That  depends  upon  whether  he  is  a  skilled 
horticulturist  or  an  amateur.  I  should  say  that  he 
would  require  from  five  to  twenty-five  acres,  accord- 
ing to  his  bias  and  what  he  expects  to  grow.  I  have 
only  nine  acres  left,  and  half  of  that  only  is  devoted 
to  fruit  growing.  It  is  quite  enough,  looking  at  the 
amount  of  work  to  be  done,  but  it  is  not  enough  when 
one  has  gone  so  far  as  to  be  carrying  on  experiments 
in  cross-breeding.  This  requires  the  isolation  of 
new  products  in  the  vegetable  line,  to  prevent  sport- 
ing and  recrossing.  In  fact,  I  need  at  least  twice  as 
many  acres  as  I  have.  However,  you  can  get  a  lot 
of  gardening  done  on  five  acres,  or  even  on  three; 
only  by  and  by  when  you  wish  that  you  had  ten  you 
will  find  that  your  very  success  has  run  up  the  price 
of  land  about  you,  and  you  would  have  done  better  to 
have  bought  a  little  more  at  the  outset. 

A  country  home  must  in  some  sense  always  be  a 
growing  home,  but  do  not  start  out  with  big  ideas. 


FINDING  THE  PLACE  25 

As  some  one  has  said:  "  Do  not  begin  at  the  butt 
end,  but  at  the  wedge  end."  Begin  on  a  small  scale, 
and  expand  as  conditions  demand.  Five  acres  will 
give  you  a  garden  and  a  house  lawn  and  will  feed  a 
horse.  Twenty  acres  will  not  only  grow  a  good  deal 
for  market,  but  if  wisely  handled  will  feed  a  horse 
and  two  cows.  Rightly  managed.  It  will  bring  you 
in  over  one  thousand  dollars  surplus,  as  soon  as  your 
gardens  and  orchards  are  In  full  bearing — It  may 
turn  over  to  you  two  thousand. 

As  to  price,  I  can  take  you  to  a  locality  where  the 
valuation  of  land  is  one  thousand  dollars  per  acre, 
while  half  a  mile  away  it  is  one  hundred  dollars  or 
less.  The  reasons  are  a  combination  of  high  im- 
provement with  splendid  outlook,  choice  neighbors, 
and  some  of  the  other  advantages  which  I  have 
designated.  You  can  get  choice  places  generally 
for  from  twenty  to  seventy-five  dollars  an  acre, 
but  a  great  deal  depends  upon  the  surroundings 
and  certain  accidental  conditions.  In  Florida  I 
found  excellent  orange  land  selling  at  from  ten  to 
twenty  dollars  per  acre,  but  this  was  owing  to  the  fact 
that  a  great  freeze  destroyed  millions  of  orange  trees 
in  1895.  Those  same  lands  are  now  at  double  that 
valuation,  and  going  up. 

In  most  of  our  Northern  States  good  sites  for  a 
country  home  can  be  purchased  at  from  fifty  to  one 
hundred  dollars  per  acre.  The  question  must  be 
settled  by  a  thorough  examination  of  the  soil,  relative 
locality  as  to  railroad  and  market,  and  all  the  other 


26     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

items  that  I  have  specified.  Whatever  else  you  do, 
do  not  buy  through  unknown  agents  and  do  not  take 
up  with  any  of  the  splendid  offers  made  by  those  who 
speculate  in  land. 

I  have  made  as  clear  as  possible  my  own  experience 
in  selecting  a  place  for  a  country  home.  I  advise 
you  not  to  be  in  a  hurry,  at  all  events.  It  will  be  a 
memorable  feature  of  your  experience  to  go  on  a 
long  and  rather  still  hunt.  When  you  see  what 
pleases  you,  go  again,  study  it,  and  without  enthu- 
siasm. Remember  violets  grow  in  more  than  one 
dell,  and  that  old  apple  trees  are  to  be  found  on  more 
than  one  hillside.  Burn  up  advertising  circulars  and 
do  not  attend  any  auction  sales  —  even  where  there 
are  free  rides  and  free  lunches. 

Run  no  danger  of  getting  roped  in  to  an  incon- 
siderate purchase.  You  cannot  quite  trust  yourself, 
and  in  this  matter  an  unwise  purchase  cannot  be 
easily  reconsidered.  I  have  persistent  and  continual 
pressure  to  buy  land  in  Florida  for  those  who  have 
never  seen  that  State.  I  refuse  to  do  this  unless  the 
conditions  are  very  peculiar.  Go  yourself  and  look 
over  land  and  study  conditions,  so  that  first  of  all  you 
may  know  whether  you  can  adjust  yourself  to  the 
conditions  that  you  find  involved  in  the  purchase. 

Of  course,  some  of  us  cannot  have  the  first  pick, 
but  if  you  can  overlook  a  beautiful  valley  you  as 
good  as  own  it.  Your  property  is  not  measured  ex- 
actly by  what  your  deed  covers,  and  this  goes  a  long 
way  farther  in  the  country  than  in  the  city.     I  travel 


FINDING  THE  PLACE  27 

about  Massachusetts  and  New  York,  and  almost 
everywhere  come  upon  spots  so  beautiful,  so  homeful, 
that  I  long  to  purchase  and  develop  each  one  of  them. 
Somebody  will  do  it  yet,  and  America  is  bound  to  be 
one  great  garden,  while  our  highways  constitute  a 
public  garden  for  the  benefit  of  all  of  us. 

Meanwhile,  If  your  lot  is  not  too  closely  condi- 
tioned, take  up  one  of  these  noble  bits  of  property. 
Do  not  trifle  with  it,  but  what  you  do  should  be  done 
with  the  one  controlling  purpose  of  forever  enjoying 
that  landscape. 

"  Well,"  said  a  wise  and  witty  Irishman  who 
brought  me  a  load  of  hay,  "  If  I  could  forever  see 
that  valley,  sir,  full  of  villages  and  orchards,  I'd 
not  ask  Peter  to  use  his  keys  for  me.  That  village 
In  front  sits  on  the  middle  of  the  valley,  like  a  dia- 
mond sits  in  a  queen's  ring." 

The  scene  had  awakened  all  the  poetry  that  sleeps 
In  the  Celtic  mind.  That  Is  the  value  of  a  home  In 
the  country;  not  merely  to  feed  the  body,  but  also  to 
feed  the  soul. 

The  conditions,  however,  are  so  various  that  every- 
one cannot  select  from  the  standpoint  of  landscape 
and  outlook.  The  teamster  will  do  wisely  who  looks 
to  proximity  to  his  work  and  fertility  of  the  soil  as 
the  two  sure  requisites.  He  wants  enough  land  to 
feed  his  horse  or  horses  and  to  furnish  garden  room. 

"  Well,  sir,"  said  a  heady  fellow,  "  I'd  like  It  out 
here  on  these  hilly  slopes,  only  you  see  I  must  be  at 
my  work  in  the  city  by  seven  In  the  morning,  and  I 


2  8     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

may  be  needed  until  eight  o'clock  at  night.  I  ve  a 
pretty  acre,  just  half  a  mile  from  the  city  lamps,  and 
there  I've  as  fine  a  garden  as  one  may  wish.  I'd  be 
glad  to  have  you  taste  our  asparagus,  and  later  our 
string  beans  and  fresh  corn.  There's  a  small  bed  of 
strawberries,  too,  and  along  the  fence  some  raspber- 
ries —  not  many,  but  enough  for  us  and  a  few  for 
my  friends. 

"  I  get  three  cuts  of  alfalfa  from  my  yard  and 
from  the  lot  in  the  rear,  and  it  nigh  feeds  my  horse. 
There  are  three  pear  trees  for  shade,  half  a  dozen 
plum  trees,  and  a  lot  of  cherry  trees  besides,  in  the 
garden.  The  wife  tends  all  these,  as  well  as  her 
hens,  and  it's  not  seldom  that  she  gives  me  a  basket 
of  eggs  for  the  market.  Since  we  began  to  earn  and 
to  save,  and  to  sleep  well,  I  drink  less,  and  there  is 
a  bank  account  slowly  creeping  on. 

"  The  children  are  out  of  the  streets,  with  a  chance 
to  be  helpful  in  the  garden.  They  have  as  much 
fruit  as  they  like,  and  flowers  in  the  bargain.  I  like 
nothing  better  myself  than  to  sit  on  the  turf  with 
them,  unless  it  be  to  see  how  clean  and  healthy  they 
be  growing." 

I  know  two  maiden  ladles  —  old  maids  if  you 
please  (for  they  were  growing  old  very  fast)  — who 
came  out  of  the  city  about  eight  years  ago,  and 
bought  a  cottage  half  a  mile  from  me.  They  were 
very  poky  and  full  of  ailments.  They  planted 
flowers  and  lettuce,  and  soon  had  their  own  pie  plant 
and  greens  and  fresh  peas  and  a  good  deal  else  to 


FINDING  THE  PLACE  29 

live  for.  They  kept  bees  and  grew  enthusiastic  over 
their  pets.  They  are  now  rosy  and  full  of  old-girl- 
ishness. 

Horace  Mann  said  that  the  world  could  not  get 
on  without  a  quota  of  old  maids.  Certainly  this  sort 
of  sun-kissed  women  are  Invaluable  in  any  neighbor- 
hood. It  was  the  country,  however,  that  made  them, 
and  It  was  the  getting  back  to  Nature  that  awakened 
and  refreshed  their  souls. 

As  things  are  now,  women  can  run  a  country 
home  nearly  as  well  as  men.  They  have  not  only 
the  garden  and  the  bees  and  the  hens,  but  they  can 
manage  the  small  fruits  with  ease.  I  know  one  Ohio 
girl  who  has  taken  to  quince  growing,  and  if  you 
want  to  see  something  beautiful  walk  through  her 
rows  of  Anglers  and  Meech  and  Pineapple  quinces. 
You  will  easily  find  In  Missouri  and  Arkansas  a  goose 
girl  —  that  Is,  a  girl  or  woman  who  runs  a  goose 
farm  —  and  she  makes  money  at  It  to  a  certainty. 
It  Is  a  novel  sight  to  see  a  long  drove  of  geese  going 
to  market,  shooed  along  by  their  owners. 

The  ordinary  clerk  Is,  In  my  judgment,  the  least 
fortunate  of  all  men,  because  he  is  being  spoiled  for 
home-making.  He  Is  kept  In  an  Intellectual  tread- 
mill until  he  has  got  beyond  the  power  of  growth 
and  expansion.  Look  out  for  this,  my  friend,  for- 
it  may  come  before  you  are  thirty  years  of  age. 
However,  If  the  clerk  will  break  loose  from  conven- 
tionalism, especially  from  the  boarding  house;  will 
marry  a  wife  and  buy  a  place  out  near  the  trolley, 


30     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

his  chances  mend.  He  should  not  be  very  far  from 
a  quick  transit,  for  he  is  hable  to  oversleep  or  lose 
a  few  minutes  from  his  dinner  hour. 

Here  he  can  have  his  garden  and  a  few  fruit  trees 
and  such  associations  with  Nature  as  will  keep  him 
alert.  He  should  discover  the  morning  and  see  the 
sun  rise  every  day  of  the  summer.  I  said  to  one  of 
this  sort  the  other  day  that  I  believed  one  hour  of 
the  morning  was  worth  three  or  four  of  any  other 
time  of  day,  and  that  daybreak  was  the  most  delight- 
ful of  all  times. 

"  So  they  tell  me,"  he  coolly  responded.  This  sort 
of  chap,  who  at  forty  has  never  seen  the  sunrise,  cer- 
tainly not  since  his  childhood,  has  no  place  in  the 
country.  Yet  I  should  like  very  much  to  encourage 
the  clerks  of  our  big  towns  to  an  ambition  outside  of 
a  counter-bound  and  enfeebling  effort  to  sell  a  corset 
or  a  line  of  toweling.  Why  not  grow  cabbages  like 
the  Emperor  Diocletian? 

Ministers  I  sympathize  with  —  am  one  myself  — 
and  I  see  no  reason  why  a  minister  should  lose  his 
vitality  and  become  a  dried-up  parson,  unfit  for  the 
pulpit,  at  sixty.  If  he  will  live  close  to  Nature,  he 
may  be  young  at  eighty  and  more  virile  than  at  forty. 
We  have  heard  a  good  deal  about  old  age,  but  no- 
body yet  has  told  us  what  it  is,  I  am  inclined  to 
think  it  is  a  mere  habit  that  people  have  fallen  into 
and  are  not  yet  quite  ready  to  shake  it  off. 

Our  professional  men  may  have  country  homes 
quite  as  well  as  our  day  laborers  and  merchants,  pro- 


FINDING  THE  PLACE  31 

vided  they  do  not  go  out  of  call.  The  doctor,  with 
his  telephone  and  automobile,  can  live  one  mile 
farther  from  his  patients  without  injury,  and  as  for 
pastoral  calls,  most  of  them  had  better  be  made  over 
the  wires.  The  minister  can  do  no  better  thing  than 
invite  his  hearers  to  a  walk  and  a  talk  in  the  gardens 
and  fields  —  as  his  Master  did. 

If  you  buy  an  old  or  deserted  homestead,  consider 
the  reason  for  its  being  on  the  market.  Is  it  wind- 
swept? Was  the  soil  exhausted  by  bad  cultivation? 
Or,  on  the  other  hand,  are  there  some  fine  old  orchard 
trees  that  can  be  rehabilitated?  Can  the  buildings 
be  renovated  for  use,  at  least  temporarily?  Are 
there  great  masses  of  manure  and  fertilizers  of  other 
sorts  that  can  be  Immediately  put  to  use  ?  Are  there 
shrubs  and  plants  and  plum  trees  and  cherry  trees 
out  of  which  one  may  begin  a  small  fruit  garden  ? 

Very  frequently  around  these  old  places,  which  look 
very  rubbishy,  you  will  find  quite  a  mine  of  wealth. 
In  fact,  you  may  set  this  down  as  a  certainty,  that 
the  oldest  and  most  neglected  of  these  deserted  farms 
are  very  far  from  being  worn  out  or  poverty  stricken. 
The  owners  did  not  know  what  they  held,  or  In  some 
way  were  not  up  to  date  In  land  tillage.  Connecti- 
cut Is  now  growing  five  bushels  of  wheat  to  the  acre 
more  than  Minnesota.  I  have  known  a  man  to  live 
for  twenty  years  over  a  marl  bed  and  not  know  It. 
The  new  farming  Is  the  find-out  farming,  and  It  is 
putting  new  valuations  everywhere. 

Other   things  being  somewhere  near  equal,   buy 


32     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

your  own  old  homestead  if  you  can.  These  deserted 
places  are  being  picked  up  quite  too  much  by 
strangers  and  mutilated  with  all  sorts  of  improve- 
ments. I  would  rather  have  a  few  old  apple  trees, 
put  in  good  order,  of  course;  just  the  trees  that  I 
climbed  in  my  childhood,  Spitzenburg  and  Rhode 
Island  Greenings,  some  of  them  leaning  down  so  that 
a  child  may  creep  up  and  hide  with  the  robins  among 
the  apples. 

I  would  rather  have  these  old  trees  than  all  the 
avenues,  automobile  driven,  that  are  planted  around 
Long  Island  Sound  by  millionaires.  The  senti- 
mental side  of  life  pays.  In  England  families  count; 
here  it  is  only  the  individual.  The  boy  is  pushed 
out  of  the  homestead  at  twenty  to  start  a  new  home, 
and  so  nothing  is  ever  finished.  Learn  to  let  the 
family  spirit  live  in  all  that  you  do. 

You  may  possibly  be  able  to  do  as  I  have  done, 
after  forming  a  partnership  with  your  own  sons,  go 
with  the  birds  North  and  South  and  have  a  home  at 
each  end  of  the  route.  In  Florida  we  escape  the 
rigor  of  a  Northern  winter,  and  with  the  robins  we 
flit  Northward  when  the  daffodils  blossom  and  the 
maple  sap  runs.  A  Christmas  bath  in  Lake  Lucy,  an 
arm  full  of  roses  on  New  Year's  day,  and  oranges  all 
through  January,  these  things  fit  well  to  peace  of 
mind  and  long  life. 


CHAPTER  II 

FIRST  STEPS  TOWARD  THE  HOME 

WHEN  you  have  found  a  piece  of  ground 
that  you  have  thoroughly  considered,  both 
as  to  itself  and  its  relations  to  its  sur- 
roundings, a  property  that  you  can  look  at  lovingly 
and  say  it  is  your  own,  you  must  learn  to  make  the 
best  of  it.  Be  sure  you  do  not  fall  Into  the  com- 
mon blunder  of  imagining  you  have  only  to  hire  a 
builder  to  construct  a  house  Into  which  you  will  move, 
supposing  you  are  living  in  the  country.  If  your 
house  is  a  city  house,  and  your  surroundings  are 
citified,  it  will  be  a  problem  whether  you  are  living  In 
the  country  or  the  city. 

One  who  lives  a  real  life  In  the  country  does  very 
little  of  it  Indoors.  For  this  reason  he  must  look 
out  carefully  for  his  out  of  doors  and  see  to  It  that 
his  gardens,  lawns,  groves,  orchards,  retreats,  and 
drives  are  his  own,  and  expressive  of  his  own  aspira- 
tion and  character.  The  most  important  part  of 
country  home-making  precedes  the  house.  In  fact, 
you  cannot  wisely  build  at  all  until  you  have  done 
some  planting. 

I  have  seen  a  house  put  up  on  a  knoll,  conspicuously, 
without  a  tree  to  shade  it,  and  It  was  as  pleasant  to 

33 


34     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

live  in  as  a  Dutch  oven,  in  no  way  as  attractive  as  a 
common  city  home  —  for  in  the  city  one  house  shades 
another.  I  have  just  now  in  sight  a  country  house 
where  the  owner  began  with  grading  and  tree-cutting. 
He  sheared  off  every  knoll  and  filled  all  the  hollows, 
and  then  built  a  house.  It  will  be  at  least  ten  years 
before  he  can  give  himself  a  country  environment. 

This  grading  business  is  dangerous  altogether  and 
should  be  undertaken  only  after  a  good  deal  of  con- 
sideration. As  a  rule,  the  rolls  and  swales  and  hol- 
lows are  Nature's  idea  of  grace  and  beauty.  She 
fills  the  hollows  with  mint  and  ferns  and  forget-me- 
nots,  and  over  the  rolls  she  scatters  her  grasses  and 
clovers.  What  one  has  to  do  is  to  sit  down  on  the 
highest  point  of  his  land,  at  the  very  outset,  and  try 
to  understand  what  Nature  has  been  doing. 

Get  as  nearly  as  possible  the  full  relation  of  your 
land  to  the  rest  of  the  land  about.  Sit  there  until 
you  can  feel  with  Nature,  catch  her  idea  and  the  sen- 
timent of  your  homestead.  Be  sure  it  is  part  of  a 
poem.  It  might  be  well  to  wait  a  few  days  and  take 
another  survey,  and  then  a  third  with  your  wife  and 
children. 

As  soon  as  you  have  begun  to  grade  and  level 
down,  you  are  liable  to  throw  your  property  out  of 
relationship  to  its  surroundings.  I  can  show  you  a 
hillside,  where  the  first  homesteader,  instead  of  level- 
ing his  house  to  the  land,  leveled  the  land  to  his 
house ;  this  made  no  end  of  work  for  himself,  for  the 
showers  came  guttering  down  and  filling  up  his  hoi- 


FIRST  STEPS  TOWARD  THE  HOME     35 

lows ;  and  then  every  man  who  followed  him  in  build- 
ing did  the  same  thing,  digging  flat  places  into  the 
hillside,  until  the  whole  hill  was  sliced  and  carved  out 


From   Two   to   Five   Acres;   Have   Everything   Convenient   and 
.Waste  no  Time  Getting  About. 


36     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

of  comeliness.  It  was  a  small  attempt  to  make  a  side 
hill  look  like  a  plain,  and  such  efforts  will  always  fail. 

After  you  have  made  a  thorough  study  of  what 
you  have  purchased,  you  are  ready  to  plot  it  on, 
paper.  I  advise  you  to  do  this  work  yourself.  A 
landscape  gardener  is  likely  to  express  an  ambition 
and  set  you  to  working  that  out.  He  will  almost 
surely  undertake  too  much.  After  you  have  com- 
pleted your  work,  you  might  allow  him  to  look  it 
over  and  make  suggestions,  but  the  real  plotting 
should  be  between  you  and  Nature.  I  am  talking 
to  those  who  are  going  into  the  country  with  capital 
enough  to  command  a  small  homestead  and  work  out 
their  own  ideas. 

The  teamster  and  the  clerk,  as  a  rule,  must  con- 
tent themselves  with  properties  already  plotted  and 
near  the  city.  But  even  these  can  find  many  ways 
for  expressing  themselves  In  their  new  homes.  This 
can  be  done  In  the  garden  with  flowers,  and  In  a 
hundred  little  byways  and  hedges.  I  could  show 
you  a  two-acre  plot,  level  as  your  kitchen  floor,  but 
unique  at  every  point,  and  expressive  of  the  character 
that  made  It.  I  have  helped  a  good  many  at  this 
landscape  work,  but  I  always  refuse  to  do  it  for  them. 

The  first  thing  to  plant  Is  yourself,  working  Into 
the  ground  your  own  views  and  opinions  and  even 
notions,  as  well  as  tastes.  If  you  have  a  good  piece 
of  property  it  has  lots  of  expressive  features.  Do 
not  stop  studying  It  until  you  have  found  out  all  that 
can  be  done.     We  understand  that  your  conceptions 


FIRST  STEPS  TOWARD  THE  HOME     37 

are  put  on  paper  at  once,  and  these  are  to  be  viewed 
and  reviewed  and  amended  until  you  are  fairly  sat- 
isfied. 

You  have  no  idea  how  much  pleasure  you  will  get 
out  of  these  preliminaries.  It  is  a  mistake  to  say 
that  you  do  not  understand  landscape  work.  Pro- 
fessionally you  do  not,  but  you  are  learning  a  good 
deal  about  such  things  every  day,  not  only  about  the 
surface  and  the  roll  of  the  land,  but  about  the  soil 
and  its  needs. 

In  my  chapter  on  "  Finding  the  Home,"  I  told  you 
that  I  had  known  a  man  to  live  over  a  marl  bed  with- 
out finding  it  out.  I  saw  a  surveyor  trace  a  fine 
vein  of  iron  ore  right  through  a  dozen  farms,  not 
more  than  three  feet  from  the  surface  in  places,  and 
not  one  of  the  farmers  had  ever  suspected  its  exist- 
ence. On  the  other  hand  I  visited  a  man  who  had 
a  beautiful  brook  running  through  his  pasture,  and 
his  neighbor's  sheep  drank  from  it  after  it  had  left 
his  own  pasture,  but  not  until  he  had  harnessed  it 
to  light  his  house  and  run  his  machinery.  It  de- 
pends a  good  deal  upon  eyes  and  ears  and  how  you 
use  them.  Ten  acres  that  you  do  not  read  are  like 
ten  books  in  Chinese  on  your  library  table.  All  this 
while,  you  understand  that  you  are  not  to  try  to  re- 
peat what  somebody  else  has  done,  but  to  work  out 
your  own  problem  In  terms  of  the  beautiful  and  the 
useful. 

This  charting  and  plotting  of  your  property  does 
not  mean  a  complicated  piece  of  artistic  drawing,  but 


38     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

a  very  simple  outline  sketch  that  you  can  understand 
yourself,  even  if  no  one  else  would  pronounce  it 
beautiful.  Anyone  who  undertakes  to  live  in  the 
country  must  first  of  all  learn  to  see  things,  and  this 
chart  of  yours  tells  what  you  see,  not  only  now  visible, 
but  as  hereafter  possible.  If  you  have  only  a  little 
bit  of  vision  power,  cultivate  it. 

Look  over  your  new  property,  and  before  you  do 
anything  whatever  think  what  might  be  done.  Leave 
out  all  artistic  sketches  and  just  study  how  you  and 
yours  can  fit  nicely  into  what  Nature  has  already 
done,  and  how  you  can  improve,  without  undoing  or 
spoiling  what  has  gone  before.  Depend  on  one 
thing,  that  when  you  begin  to  contradict  Nature  and 
plow  her  out  of  her  fields  you  will  have  a  long  job 
of  it. 

This  paper  chart  from  which  you  are  to  do  your 
work  you  can  easily  see  is  extremely  important,  be- 
cause it  can  be  mended  and  amended,  but  if  you  begin 
directly  on  the  soil,  striking  in  anywhere,  you  will  at 
once  be  doing  something  that  cannot  easily  be  recti- 
fied. 

Right  after  the  plotting  of  your  property,  in  fact 
while  you  are  still  carrying  on  your  study  you  may 
undertake  the  drainage  problem.  I  am  quite  sure 
that,  however  soon  you  initiate  this  ditching  business, 
you  will  not  get  to  the  bottom  of  it  for  several  years. 
I  have  seen  very  contented  country  home-makers 
laying  out  what  is  called  the  Waring  system  all  over 
their  acres.     I  have  found  that  the  adoption  of  this 


FIRST  STEPS  TOWARD  THE  HOME     39 

system  or  any  other  patent  system  will  not  end  the 
difficulties. 

If  you  live  on  a  side  hill  It  will  take  you  many 
months,  if  not  years,  to  discover  just  how  to  catch 
swift  showers  most  promptly  and  carry  them  away  so 
easily  as  not  to  be  erosive  of  the  soil.  My  chief  dif- 
ficulty at  this  point  was  that  I  lost  constantly  a  good 
deal  of  my  best  property,  carried  downhill  into  my 
neighbors'  fields  and  into  the  valley.  Drainage  does 
not  mean  simply  to  prevent  the  settling  of  water  in 
swampy  spots,  but  the  ready  catching  of  spring 
thaws  and  cloudbursts,  at  the  same  time  taking  drain- 
age from  the  house  and  the  outhouses  to  some  safe 
receptacle.  The  Waring  system  will  carry  away  and 
distribute  fertilizing  material,  provided  It  also  has 
an  outlet  In  vegetation,  but  to  fill  your  acres  full  of 
poisonous  drainage  demands  that  It  shall  be  taken 
up  by  the  foliage  readily,  or  It  will  poison  the  air. 

I  prefer  tile  drains  that  will  carry  the  house  waste 
a  safe  distance  and  discharge  It  directly  into  compost 
piles.  These  compost  piles  we  shall  talk  about  more 
hereafter,  but  for  the  present  understand  that  they 
are  to  be  made  of  barnyard  manure,  road  waste,  all 
the  coal  ashes  you  can  accumulate,  autumn  leaves  In 
great  abundance,  together  with  weeds  and  all  the 
rest  of  the  refuse  that  Is  thrown  Into  the  street,  or 
allowed  to  dry  up  In  the  fields.  I  assure  you  that 
there  Is  a  vast  amount  of  this  sort  of  stuff  that  goes 
to  waste  and  that  It  is  as  Important  a  product  as  any- 
thing your  acres  can  yield.     Piled  up  and  allowed  to 


40     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

decompose  slowly,  these  compost  heaps  become  the 
chief  resource  for  keeping  your  land  fertile,  your 
trees  healthy,  and  your  garden  stuff  abundant. 

Tile  drains  are  always  preferable  to  stone  drains, 
but  they  are  often  less  economical  in  the  long  run. 
If  your  land  is  stony  you  may  use  a  large  quantity  of 
stones  in  drains,  always  making  sure  that  these  drains 
are  large  enough  and  that  there  are  enough  of  them 
to  carry  off  the  heaviest  flushing  of  April  weather 
and  the  dashing  of  a  summer  shower.  If  your  soil 
is  full  of  springs,  as  it  is  likely  to  be,  tile  drains  will 
be  needed  every  twenty-five  feet.  Plant  them  at 
least  three  feet  deep  and  make  sure  that  you  know 
just  where  they  run,  for  you  will  need  occasionally 
to  open  them  for  repairs.  I  have  had  more  or  less 
trouble  in  finding  my  ditches,  especially  when  they 
run  through  berry  yards. 

If  you  have  followed  my  advice  about  grading 
and  leveling  and  have  only  removed  roughnesses  you 
will  find  that  you  cannot  run  all  your  ditches  in  one 
direction.  They  will  have  to  be  gathered  Into  mains, 
that  Is,  larger  pipes,  which  will  carry  the  wash  either 
into  neighborhood  drains  or  Into  the  highway  ditch. 
The  house  drainage  that  runs  Into  a  compost  pile 
should  not  be  of  a  character  to  wash  out  the  fertiliz- 
ing material,  but  rather  to  deposit  what  It  brings. 

Let  me  tell  you  that  these  compost  piles  will  not 
be  an  annoyance,  either  to  the  eyes  or  the  nose,  for 
we  shall  cover  them  all  summer  with  squash  vines  or 
pumpkin  vines,  while  Nature  slowly  decomposes  the 


FIRST  STEPS  TOWARD  THE  HOME     41 


material,  and  fits  it  for  the  land.  For  that  matter 
my  compost  piles  have  always  proved  an  attraction 
to  visitors,  as  well  as  an  object  lesson  in  economy. 
Everyone  wishes  to  know  what  they  are,  and  I  make 
them  a  text  for  a  horticultural  sermon  about  wasting 
plant  food.      Manure,  as  a  rule,  as  applied  commonly. 


APPLE 
OKCHAKD 


GAKDEN 


HOUSE 


PLTUMS 

PEAPxS 
CHERRIES 
AND  OTHtR 
FKUITS 


The  Minister's  Retreat  is  all  Garden  and  Fruit;   Good 

Sermons    Grow   Along   With   Parsnips    and 

Cabbages. 

loses  nearly  ninety  per  cent  of  its  values,  but  a  well- 
constructed  compost  pile  loses  not  to  exceed  five  per 
cent.  A  dozen  big  Hubbard  squashes  is  the  first 
crop,  and  I  have  dug  out  of  such  a  pile  sweet  potatoes 
as  large  as  your  head. 

Our  next  point  in  a  preliminary  way  is  laying  out 
drives.     These  have  for  their  main  purpose  inter- 


42     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

communication  between  the  house,  the  road,  and  the 
barn,  but  a  properly  laid  out  country  homestead  pro- 
vides for  drives  and  paths  that  reach  every  part  of 
the  grounds.  Some  of  these  may  be  grassy  lanes, 
that  lead  about  among  the  berry  gardens  and  through 
the  orchards.  I  do  not  hold  that  this  is  a  waste  of 
land.  It  saves  the  dragging  of  wagons  through  the 
mud,  or  the  cutting  of  ruts  in  the  turf  and  the  incon- 
venience of  carrying  crates  of  berries  and  barrels  of 
apples  a  long  distance  by  hand.  In  other  words, 
make  the  approach  to  every  corner  and  every  quarter 
of  your  land  as  easy  as  possible  and  do  it  in  the  most 
natural  way. 

While  cultivating  your  berry  orchards  you  need 
a  turning  place  at  each  end  of  your  furrow,  and  this 
should  be  in  such  lanes  as  I  have  suggested;  in  all 
cases  these  should  be  expressions  of  the  beautiful  as 
well  as  the  useful.  The  drives  to  and  around  your 
house  should  avoid  straight  lines  and  stiffness  as  a 
rule.  Something  is  gained  generally  by  starting  at 
the  corner  of  your  lot,  instead  of  directly  in  front  of 
your  doorway. 

This  does  not  mean,  however,  that  in  a  quite  small 
place  it  is  necessary  to  curve  the  walks  or  drives  from 
the  street  to  the  house.  I  think  the  teamster  who 
has  only  one  or  two  acres  will  show  much  better  taste 
by  economizing  his  land  and  growing  more  alfalfa. 
One  good  broad  driveway,  bordered  by  a  tidy  path, 
and  all  of  this  hemmed  in  in  the  old-fashioned  way  by 
lines  of  shrubbery,  will  serve  him  well  —  and  will  be 


FIRST  STEPS  TOWARD  THE  HOME     43 

in  the  best  taste.  Along  with  this  shrubbery  the 
housewife  will  probably  find  room  for  her  pinks  and 
asters.  Where  the  distance  is  greater  and  the  prop- 
erty larger,  let  the  walk  or  drive  follow  Nature's 
suggestion  around  a  knoll  or  down  a  swale  and  some- 
times inclose  a  group  of  trees. 

Remedying  a  defective  driveway,  I  suggested  to 
a  planter  to  leave  a  row  of  trees  directly  down  the 
middle  of  it.  In  the  middle  of  one  of  my  own  drives 
stands  a  superb  Kentucky  coffee  tree.  The  most 
beautiful  highway  that  I  have  ever  seen  in  New  York 
State  passes  through  a  grove  of  elms  and  maples. 
It  was  on  no  account  necessary  or  desirable  to  cut  any 
of  these. 

You  will  almost  surely  find  that  Nature  has  some 
suggestion  for  you  at  every  point  and  has  made  many 
preliminary  arrangements;  it  is  quite  the  thing  for 
you  to  accept  her  advice.  What  I  have  said  should 
not,  however,  be  misunderstood  as  suggesting  the  cut- 
ting up  of  every  piece  of  property  with  formal  walks, 
or  drives,  everywhere.  We  can  do  most  of  our 
walking  on  the  turf,  and  as  a  rule  our  arbors  and 
retreats  need  to  be  out  of  the  way  of  visitors.  The 
width  of  a  drive  should  be  generous,  and  where  used 
for  both  walk  and  drive  it  should  not  be  less  than 
sixteen  feet. 

If  bordered  with  hedges,  remember  that  these  will 
increase  their  width  one  inch  a  year,  even  with  close 
pruning.  That  is,  one  inch  on  each  side  of  the 
drive  will  be  deducted  annually,  which  is  one  foot 


44     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

every  six  )^ears.  You  see  you  are  losing  your  drive- 
way steadily,  so  that  in  thirty  years  five  feet  of  it 
(two  feet  and  a  half  on  each  side)  will  have  been  ab- 
sorbed by  the  hedge.  This  requires  foresight  in 
planting,  as  does  every  other  step  that  you  take  in 
creating  a  country  home. 

The  advisability  of  bordering  your  drives  with 
hedges  depends  upon  the  lay  of  your  land.  The  first 
object  of  a  hedge  is  not  the  beauty  of  the  thing  in 
itself  so  much  as  the  break  that  it  makes  in  a  smooth 
landscape.  We  shall  discuss  this  more  hereafter, 
and  for  that  matter  the  hedge  planting  can  easily  be 
deferred  until  after  the  house  is  built.  If  you  plant 
hedges  at  all,  at  present,  confine  yourself  to  Tartarian 
honeysuckles,  among  the  shrubs,  which  are  very  easily 
replaced  and  transplanted. 

While  laying  out  my  Clinton  homestead,  having 
placed  my  house  far  back  from  the  street,  I  found 
that  road-making  was  the  one  most  essential  feature 
In  my  preliminary  work.  My  neighbor  caustically 
suggested  that  I  was  laying  out  a  railroad.  Bor- 
dered with  arbor  vit£e  these  drives  now  constitute  a 
most  attractive  feature  of  the  home.  They  de- 
manded a  thorough  study  of  swales  and  slopes  and 
natural  approaches.  They  were  then  thoroughly 
drained,  with  tile  placed  at  the  sides  and  the  roadbed 
made  of  furnace  slag,  covered  by  red  shale.  This 
shale  first  melts  under  the  effect  of  showers  and  then 
compacts  until  it  is  a  solid  and  nearly  imperishable 
roadbed. 


FIRST  STEPS  TOWARD  THE  IIOMI-:     45 

Cutting  may  he  another  part  of  your  prejniratory 
work,  only  whatever  you  do  of  this  sort  do  very  slowly 
and  deliberately.  Possibly  you  have  bought  an  old 
homestead  with  trees  already  on  it.  These,  having 
probably  been  neglected  for  many  years,  will  need 
judicious  trimming,  and  no  doubt  some  of  them  will 
have  to  be  cut  out.  Walk  around  a  tree  thought- 
fully half  a  dozen  times,  on  half  a  dozen  successive 
days,  before  you  use  ax  or  saw.  Study  each  tree  in- 
dividually and  in  its  relations  to  its  neighbors,  and 
then  cut  conservatively.  You  can  destroy  the  work 
of  fifty  years  in  a  single  day,  but  you  cannot  restore 
what  you  have  removed.  Trees  are  the  work  of 
time  and  are  not  to  be  dealt  with  lightly. 

Do  not  let  a  professional  trimmer  get  at  the  work. 
He  is  almost  sure  to  be  a  hireling,  whose  Interest  is 
to  cut  as  long  as  he  is  paid  for  it.  When  I  think  of 
cutting  a  tree  I  examine  it  from  every  point  of  view 
and  aim  to  comprehend  Its  relations  to  other  trees 
and  to  the  outlook.  Then  I  go  when  I  am  In  a  dif- 
ferent mood  and  at  a  different  time  of  day.  There 
is  lots  of  character  in  some  of  these  old  orchards 
and  groves,  and  we  must  not  haggle  them  into 
modern  conventionalism.  One  huge  old  apple  tree 
or  a  giant  elm  hanging  its  limbs  over  your  house  is 
sacred  property,  and  a  row  of  ancient  butternuts  is 
as  full  of  history  and  poetry  as  it  is  full  of  nuts. 
Be  careful  also  when  it  comes  to  trimming  or  graft- 
ing; these  will  be  necessary,  but  cut  with  conscience 
and  tenderness.     The  old  Saxon  word  for  thorough 


46     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

was  through  and  through.     Do  your  trimming  with 
throughness  —  that  is  thoughtfuhiess. 

Even  more  important  is  our  planting,  for  before 
we  build  our  house  there  should  be  a  good  deal  of 
this  done,  and  where  old  places  have  not  been  bought, 
it  Is  all  important  to  get  ready  for  shade  and  shelter 
at  the  very  earliest  moment.  I  like  the  suggestion 
of  a  friend  who  owns  a  dozen  acres  and  held  them 
for  seven  years  before  building. 

He  said:  "  Why  should  I  go  out  there  to  live  be- 
fore things  are  ready?  Why  suffer  from  the  heat, 
and  very  likely  from  malaria,  when  I  can  just  as  well 
get  trees  and  vines  ready  for  shade,  at  the  same  time 
that  I  am  getting  rid  of  pools  and  marshy  spots?  " 

He  had  patience  and  good  sense,  planting  a  grove 
of  lindens,  which  he  said  would  be  ready  for  his 
bees  and  a  Norway  maple  which  makes  a  grove  all 
by  itself  and  a  group  of  hard  maple,  out  of  which  he 
intended  to  get  his  supply  of  sugar,  and  a  few  such 
friendly  trees  as  butternuts  and  beeches.  Beside 
these  he  had  started  rapid-growing  grapevines  which 
could  be  trained  to  his  verandas  at  the  earliest  pos- 
sible moment. 

Select  those  trees  that  grow  with  rapidity,  for  It 
will  make  a  difference  of  four  or  five  years  in  the 
matter  of  shade.  One  of  the  best  of  our  thoroughly 
hardy  trees  is  the  catalpa  speciosa,  but  If  I  were  plant- 
ing a  very  small  homestead  I  would  take  Instead  the 
small-growing  hybrid  catalpas,  originated  by  Mr.  E. 
Y.  Teas.     These  are  gorgeous  in  bloom,  rich  In  foil- 


FIRST  STEPS  TOWARD  THE  HOME     47 

age,   and  seldom  get  to  be  more  than  twenty  feet 
high. 

A  grove  of  basswood  started  as  a  preliminary  is 
also  just  the  thing  for  your  bee  quarters.  It  makes 
a  capital  shade  In  a  very  short  time.     You  cannot  be- 


VEfiETABLE 
OAP>OEN 


BAKN 


ORCHARD  OF 
APPLES 
AND     PEARS 


LAWNf 


SLOPING 

LAWN 


STOwe-PlEP. 


A   Country   Home   of   From   Five   to   Ten   Acres  —  or 

More.    This   Will  Allow    for   Diversity   as 

Well  as  More  Privacy. 


gin  too  quickly  to  supply  food  for  these  busy  little 
helpers.  The  common  locust  and  the  so-called 
honey  locust,  or  gledltschla,  are  also  first-class  bee- 
feeders,  and  very  rapid  growers  for  making  shade. 
I  like  these  rich  flowering  trees  that  give  an  abund- 


48     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

ance  of  sweet  odors  (that  is,  ozone).  They  are 
wholesome  as  well  as  delightful. 

I  do  not  like  to  anticipate  a  coming  chapter  on  trees 
and  orchards,  but  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  before 
I  began  to  build  my  house  I  should  plant  an  orchard, 
at  least  a  few  apple  trees,  for  it  will  take  six  or 
seven  years  to  get  them  into  bearing.  I  am  not  quite 
so  sure  about  a  preliminary  garden  of  strawberries 
and  raspberries,  but  these  need  not  occupy  the  place 
that  will  be  ultimately  assigned  to  them;  only  for 
the  present  let  them  be  convenient  to  where  the 
kitchen  door  will  open.  In  other  words,  you  do  not 
want  to  go  into  a  country  house  and  wait  two  or  three 
years  for  a  dish  of  raspberries  of  your  own  growing 
or  a  bunch  of  roses,  and  you  do  not  need  to  wait 
eight  or  ten  years  for  a  basket  of  Northern  spys 
from  your  orchard. 

Pear  trees  yield  their  fruit  very  quickly,  and  so  do 
plums.  I  have  noticed  that  if  none  of  this  prelim- 
inary planting  goes  on,  it  is  likely  to  be  put  off  for 
some  time  after  the  house  is  built.  It  is  a  disagree- 
able sight,  that  of  a  country  house  staring  white  on 
a  hillside,  without  a  tree  to  shade  it  or  a  vine  to  climb 
over  it  for  years. 

Now  listen  to  my  advice  and  be  sure  to  follow  it 
at  this  point  if  at  no  other.  Do  not  add  yourself 
to  those  foolish  ones  who  build  a  house  before  they 
drive  a  well  or  build  a  capacious  cistern.  Drive  the 
well  before,  not  after,  your  house  is  begun.  Let  it 
go  down  deep  into  rock,  so  deep  that  it  will  insure 


FIRST  STEPS  TOWARD  Till':  HOME     49 

you  an  unfailing  supply  of  water  that  cannot  be 
tainted  by  surface  drainage,  or  in  any  way  affected 
by  the  most  droughty  season. 

I  have  found  that,  as  a  general  rule  in  New  York 
State,  we  are  through  with  soil  and  rubble  after 
driving  thirty  feet.  At  that  point  we  strike  rock 
of  some  sort,  and  from  there  we  should  go  at  least 
thirty  feet  farther  before  withdrawing  the  drill.     Of 


COP>sN                                         ALFALFA- 

Wes/ 

WELL               VEGETABLES 

HOUSE 
PLUMS 

PE.APnS 

2 
0 

0 

: V.  -BE ji^fsVES-'-'-- ■ '"r:.:. 

CHEKFMES 

^i:;villif 

A  Suburban  Plan,  Where  the  Lots  are  Not  More  Than 

an  Acre  or  Half  an  Acre ;  no  Front  Yard  is 

Needed,  Only  a  Clean  Street  in  Front. 

course  it  is  the  Interest  of  the  driller  to  conceal  from 
you  the  first  pockets  of  water  that  he  strikes,  and  he 
may  even  shut  them  out,  that  Is  drive  his  pipe 
through  a  good  supply  of  water  Into  the  rock.  It  Is 
essential  that  you  watch  the  work,  and  insist  on  a 
thorough  test  at  every  stage  of  the  work,  after  the 
first  fifty  feet. 


so     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

My  experience  tells  me  that  after  the  drill  has 
gone  down  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet,  water  Is  not 
likely  to  be  found  until  you  have  gone  a  good  deal 
below  that.  Somewhere  between  fifty  and  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty  feet  you  should  find  water,  and  the 
whole  cost  of  the  well,  including  pipes  and  pump, 
should  not  exceed  from  $125  to  $200.  I  found 
abundant  water  in  Florida  at  sixty-five  feet,  thirty  of 
it  In  the  rock,  which  almost  exactly  tallied  with  the 
work  done  at  my  Clinton  home,  in  New  York  — 
thirty  feet  in  the  solid  rock,  reaching  abundance  of 
excellent  water.  My  Clinton  well  has  the  additional 
advantage  of  flowing.  This  can  very  rarely  be  se- 
cured. 

The  cost  will  be  absolutely  nothing  compared  with 
the  discomfort  and  loss  of  being  without  a  pure  water 
supply  for  your  family,  your  cattle,  and  your  plants. 
You  can  do  nothing  safely  in  the  way  of  planting 
a  tree  or  shrub  unless  you  can  puddle  the  roots  and 
keep  it  well  supplied  with  water  when  planted,  and 
for  some  weeks  after.  Cisterns  should  go  in  with  the 
house  and  they  should  not  be  stinted  in  size.  Each 
one  should  hold  at  least  fifty  barrels;  one  hundred 
barrels  would  be  better.  Built  of  brick  and  well 
cemented,  a  cistern  will  last  nearly  as  long  as  the 
house.  In  some  sections  it  is  desirable  to  have 
double  cisterns ;  that  is,  a  brick  wall  through  the  mid- 
dle, through  which  the  water  for  drinking  will  filter. 
That  is,  the  water  is  caught  in  one  cistern,  and  filtered 
through  into  the  other. 


FIRST  STEPS  TOWARD  THE  HOME     51 

I  am  sure  that  one-half  of  all  the  sickness  in  the 
countiy  comes  from  the  use  of  surface  water,  taken 
from  shallow  wells  or  tainted  streams,  and  yet  not 
one-half  of  our  country  homes  are  decently  supplied 
with  wells  —  perhaps  more  of  them  with  cisterns. 
I  asked  a  physician  of  very  high  standing  to  what 
he  attributed  most  of  the  ailments  with  which  he 
had  to  deal.  His  answer  was:  "First,  bad  water; 
second,  bad  habits.  Nearly  all  sickness  Is  prevent- 
able, but  above  all  things  be  careful  what  you  drink, 
and  then  how  much  and  what  you  eat." 

Much  more  attention  Is  being  paid  to  wind-breaks 
and  hedges,  and  I  have  already  suggested  In  my 
last  chapter  how  very  Important  I  think  It  Is  to  look 
out  for  these  defences.  A  stout  wind-break  against 
northwest  winds,  or  wherever  your  sweeping  storms 
come  from,  will  modify  climate  materially.  It  will 
make  a  difference  of  at  least  two  degrees  from  one 
side  of  the  road  to  the  other,  and  with  this  difference 
In  temperature  must  be  counted  In  the  sweeping  winds 
that  carry  the  moisture  off  your  land  and  dry  up  your 
foliage. 

Everybody  knows  the  advantage  of  getting  down 
under  the  protecting  slope  of  a  hill.  The  wind  leaps 
over  you,  and  you  find  that  In  the  middle  of  the  val- 
ley It  Is  rougher  and  colder  than  at  your  protected 
home.  A  planted  wind-break  is,  however,  the  best 
that  we  can  secure  or  construct  over  large  reaches 
of  our  country.  For  quick  growth  and  excellent 
service  the  best  material  will  be  found  In  those  ever- 


52     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

green  trees  that  are  native  to  your  section.  In  New- 
York  State  the  hemlock  and  the  spruce  are  especially 
good,  and  In  New  England  the  white  pine  Is  one 
of  Nature's  preferred  defences. 

In  the  Western  States  the  Lombardy  poplar  has 
been  freely  used,  and  of  late  the  Carolina  poplar. 
These  trees  are  brittle  and  soon  go  ragged,  but  still 
worse  Is  the  root  growth,  which  extends  forty  to 
fifty  feet  from  the  trees,  greatly  hindering  cultiva- 
tion and  the  growth  of  turf.  Both  of  these  trees  are 
now  excluded  from  our  best-ordered  cities  because 
they  destroy  the  pavement.  I  should  prefer  the 
evergreens  and  after  them  the  white  and  black  ash 
and  the  American  linden.  The  linden  Is  particularly 
good  because  It  can  heal  over  a  breakage  or  wound 
very  rapidly. 

In  a  yard  or  lawn  the  mountain  ash  makes  a  good 
row,  and  if  faced  with  stout  shrubbery,  such  as  lilacs 
and  viburnum  opulus  and  Tartarian  honeysuckle, 
breaks  the  wind  admirably.  Some  of  the  fruits  will 
do  you  good  service,  especially  the  pears.  The  Buf- 
fum  pear  In  particular,  growing  upright  as  a  Lom- 
bardy poplar,  makes  a  stout  hedgerow,  besides  giving 
a  large  supply  of  very  fair  fruit. 

I  should  not  think  of  building  a  house  or  in  any 
way  establishing  myself  In  the  country  without  In- 
viting the  birds  to  come  with  me.  They  are  aUIes 
that  must  be  won  for  success,  and  the  quicker  this  Is 
done  the  better.  Unless  your  home  Is  made  gen- 
erous and  agreeable  to  the  birds  you  will  be  whipped 


FIRST  STEPS  TOWARD  THE  HOME     53 

by  the  insects,  and  right  soon.  These  feathered 
friends  will  have  to  be  fed,  and  the  quicker  you  be- 
gin to  provide  for  them  the  quicker  they  will  put 
in  their  work  for  you.  Let  it  be  understood  at  once 
that  your  acres  are  to  be  free  from  dangers  and 
alarms.  In  fact,  I  think  you  would  do  well  to  put 
up  your  bird  houses  before  you  put  up  your  own. 

Plant  a  grove  of  basswoods  to  give  food  to  your 
bees  and  wild  cherries  with  mountain  ash  and  bush 
honeysuckles  to  make  sure  that  the  birds  are  never 
out  of  food.  Then  banish  guns,  except  to  destroy 
common  foes.  Birds  are  very  sensitive  to  the  beauti- 
ful and  quick  to  appreciate  safe  retreats.  I  am  some- 
times ashamed  to  note  the  ease  and  grace  with  which 
they  construct  their  country  homes  —  the  common 
sense  and  bird  piety  which  they  manifest  while  train- 
ing a  family. 

At  this  rate  you  say  we  shall  never  get  a  country 
house  built  at  all.  Well,  what  I  wish  to  emphasize 
is  that  to  build  a  house  is  a  very  insignificant  part  of 
home-making  in  the  country.  What  you  are  after 
is  life  —  full,  true,  happy,  long  life  under  the  best 
conditions  for  rational  development,  and  that  does 
not  consist  in  building  for  yourself  a  huge  box  of  a 
house  in  which  you  will  do  a  lot  of  house  cleaning 
and  a  lot  more  around  it  of  planting  and  digging. 
If  you  cannot  find  help  and  moral  uplook  and  a  big 
measure  of  poetry,  with  keener  eyes  and  quicker  ears, 
and  a  growing  sympathy  with  Nature,  you  might  bet- 
ter stay  in  the  crowd. 


'54     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

All  these  preliminaries  which  we  are  discussing 
involve  education  and  they  will  accumulate  common 
sense.  A  man  may  live  in  the  country  half  a  hun- 
dred years  and  be  insipid  in  all  his  thoughts,  and 
stupid  in  his  work.  Nothing  is  lost  in  time  by  these 
preliminaries.  All  this  work  will  have  to  be  done, 
and  what  I  am  after  is  to  see  it  is  done  In  time,  while 
it  can  be  done  best. 

I  greatly  dislike  to  go  Into  a  country  house  and 
find  them  drinking  lake  or  river  water,  and  washing 
at  a  pond  some  rods  from  the  house,  and  in  winter 
with  snow  that  has  been  thawed  over  the  stove.  I 
dislike  to  see  all  the  trees  in  an  orchard  growing  at 
a  slant,  for  lack  of  wind-breaks.  The  only  drives 
that  you  can  find  associated  with  half  our  country 
homes  are  mere  ruts  through  the  turf,  running  from 
the  street  to  the  back  door  and  then  to  the  barn. 
The  owners  consider  It  a  waste  of  time  to  construct 
a  good  private  road.  Just  as  limited  Is  the  supply 
of  shade  trees  —  generally  confined  to  a  few  old 
apple  trees  and  a  single  diseased  maple  or  possibly 
an  elm  here  and  there. 

However,  we  are  about  through  with  our  pre- 
liminary talk  and  only  care  to  reinforce  It  with  a 
point  already  touched  upon,  that  Is  unity.  Perhaps 
I  have  Implied  in  what  I  have  said  about  charting 
before  planting  that  all  these  preliminaries  must  work 
together  and  create  a  simple  unity,  a  single  home 
idea;  all  the  parts  must  fit  to  each  other.  And  this 
Is  the  sum   of  the  whole   story.     You  must  digest 


FIRST  STEPS  TOWARD  THE  HOME     SS 

your  planning  so  that  you  yourself  see  not  a  pretty 
thing  here  and  something  else  there  that  is  agreeable, 
but  a  fellowship  of  all  fine  things,  cooperating  to 
create  your  home. 

You  will  notice.  If  you  consider,  as  you  drive  by 
most  of  our  country  homes,  that  there  Is  no  such 
community  of  purpose.  The  houses  have  been 
dropped  down  In  a  conventional  way  and  about  the 
same  distance  from  the  street;  then  when  the  owners 
get  hold  of  a  tree  or  a  bush  they  stick  it  In  anywhere, 
wherever  there  is  room;  the  flowers  are  planted  just 
where  the  lawn  ought  to  be ;  until  In  the  course  of  a 
few  years  the  place  is  a  mere  jumble  of  good  and 
bad  things,  without  the  least  relation  to  each  other. 
Every  man's  property  should  be  thought  out,  and 
that  means  a  thought-full  affair.  Go  over  your  plan 
on  paper  repeatedly,  until  you  are  satisfied  that  every- 
thing Is  placed  thoughtfully;  then  every  planting  will 
be  done  reasonably. 


CHAPTER  III 

BUILDING  THE  HOUSE 

WHEN  we  are  at  last  ready  to  build  a  coun- 
try house,  we  must  understand  that  we 
have  a  good  while  ago  begun  to  build  a 
home.  The  house  is  not  to  be  the  central  thought 
in  this  homestead  of  ours.  It  will  be  a  convenience 
rather,  and  we  shall  do  our  receiving  of  friends  as 
often  under  the  apple  trees,  or  where  we  can  share 
with  them  the  babbling  of  the  brook  and  the  fra- 
grance of  the  roses.  We  mean  to  enjoy  this  country 
place  of  ours  from  gateway  to  wind-break,  and  all  our 
planting  and  building  will  have  in  it  this  understand- 
ing, that  we  are  not  to  repeat  the  restrictions  and 
conventionalisms  of  city  life  out  here  in  the  country. 
I  assure  you  that  this  has  been  a  serious  trouble  with 
country  home-making,  but  then  it  is  hardly  country 
at  all,  or  country  things,  or  country  atmosphere  that 
fills  our  minds. 

The  average  country  house  is  a  misnomer.  The 
builder  gets  his  model  from  the  city  avenue.  He  has 
not  studied  the  house  from  the  country  standpoint. 
A  house  in  the  city  is  related  only  to  streets  and  to 
other  houses,  but  the  country  house  ought  to  be 
mainly  related  to  the  landscape,  the  orchards,  the 

56 


BUILDING  THE  HOUSE  57 

gardens,  and  the  outlook.  The  land-owner  should 
live  all  over  his  land,  getting  his  life  as  well  as  his 
living  In  the  garden  and  orchard.  This  does  not 
mean  that  architecture  is  out  of  place  in  the  country; 
only  that  it  ought  to  be  country  architecture. 

As  a  rule,  the  man  to  plan  a  house  is  the  man  who 
is  to  live  in  it,  and  it  should  express  first  of  all  his 
feelings,  and  be  very  much  what  a  shell  is  to  a  crus- 
tacean —  only  it  need  not  be  carried  about  on  his 
back.  Have  you  ever  noted  how  the  useful  and  the 
beautiful  blend  In  one  of  these  sea  houses,  the  shell 
telling  you  what  the  occupant  really  thinks  and  likes  ? 
Our  houses  do  nothing  of  that  sort,  or  very  seldom 
do  it. 

The  country  is  spotted  all  over  with  houses,  for  the 
most  part  uniform,  or  very  slightly  varying  a  few 
conventional  features;  and  they  are  set  back  just 
about  an  even  distance  from  the  road.  Fortunately 
it  Is  not  possible  for  them  to  be  planted  near  enough 
to  quite  create  a  row.  The  poorer  ones  are  the  pret- 
tier, because  they  really  express  poor  folks'  needs, 
and  the  nicest  room  Is  the  kitchen,  because  it  tells 
more  about  the  people  who  use  it.  A  parlor  or  a 
sitting  room  Is  generally  pretentious  and  a  flat  fail- 
ure every  way. 

Just  note  how  people  look  and  act  in  one  of  these 
formalities.  The  best  place  to  receive  visitors  Is  on 
your  veranda  In  big  rocking-chairs  or  rustic  seats, 
and  as  for  your  friends,  take  them  to  rustic  seats  and 
hammocks  under  your  trees.     The  poorest  house  In 


58     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

the  land  can  afford  a  good,  broad,  hearty  veranda, 
—  ten  feet  deep,  and  breasting  at  least  two  sides  of 
the  house  —  only  I  am  going  to  talk  about  this  more 
fully  very  soon. 

When  we  come  to  the  better  sort  of  country 
houses,  they  lack  independence;  have  no  character 
of  their  own;  are  patched  up  of  notions  that  have  de- 
veloped mainly  in  the  crowd.  The  old-fashioned 
New  England  house  was  borrowed  of  old  England 
and  it  never  got  over  a  foreign  aspect.  It  would 
have  been  a  good  deal  better  if  these  Puritan  Fathers 
of  ours  had  imitated  the  Indians.  Then  about  1850 
there  came  in  a  touch  of  scholarship,  in  the  way  of 
Greek  porticos  and  big  pillars,  supposed  to  be  Doric 
and  Ionic.  What  in  the  world  had  we  Yankee  pio- 
neers, shoving  our  way  through  the  wilderness,  to  do 
with  Greek  temples? 

These  borrowed  houses  were  not  usable  by  their 
tenants.  The  parlor  was  shut  up  most  of  the  time, 
until  the  Family  Bible  and  hair-cloth  sofa  were 
equally  musty.  The  verandas  or  porches  were  just 
big  enough  to  be  uncomfortable  and  practically  use- 
less. Soon  after  observatories  were  built  on  the 
roofs,  but  who  had  time  to  go  up  there  to  look  out  ? 
Nobody  did  go  but  spiders  and  flies.  Meanwhile 
architecture  underwent  another  change  and  out  on 
the  hillsides  we  began  to  build  copies  of  city  houses 
in  brick;  and  these  were  put  up  as  conspicuously  as 
possible,  for  people  to  look  at  when  they  ought  to 


BUILDING  THE  HOUSE  59 

have  been  looking  at  the  trees  and  listening  to  the 
birds. 

We  drove  about  admiring  these  pretentious  build- 
ings and  forgot  the  country  altogether;  did  not  hear 
the  language  of  the  brooks,  until  the  country  became  a 
synonym  for  isolated  stupidity.  The  farmer  became 
Old  Hayseed,  and  all  around  the  cities  rich  people 
filled  the  suburban  space  with  costly  mansions. 
These  mansions  were  surrounded  with  straight  brick 
walls  and  a  precision  that  trimmed  hens  and  rabbits 
along  the  tops  of  the  hedgerows. 

What  we  need  first  of  all  is  to  know  what  we  want 
a  house  for,  and  then  the  sort  of  a  house  that  fits 
where  we  Intend  to  build.  There  really  is  such  a 
thing  as  a  natural  house,  just  as  there  Is  a  natural 
tree,  and  the  one  ought  to  grow  just  as  naturally  as 
the  other  and  as  exactly  suited  to  its  place.  Our  first 
axiom  Is  that  a  real  country  house  belongs  only  In  one 
spot,  and  to  that  spot  It  belongs  naturally.  In  other 
words  no  other  house  could  have  wisely  been  built 
In  the  place  of  the  one  we  have  constructed.  The 
architect  who  plans  the  same  sort  of  a  house  for  di- 
vers locations  does  not  know  his  business. 

We  have  gone  Into  the  country  to  see,  to  feel,  and 
to  know  Nature.  We  have,  least  of  all,  any  Interest 
In  a  house  that  shuts  out  from  us  nearly  all  the  beau- 
tiful that  Is  within  reach  of  vision  and  leaves  us  to 
enjoy  wall  paper  and  furniture.  The  result  of  the 
wrong  method  has  been  a  very  natural  one,  that  the 


6o     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

country  housewife's  mind  gets  to  be  of  the  wall-paper 
sort,  rather  than  of  the  landscape  sort  —  artificial 
and  conventional.  Not  living  with  the  birds,  she 
comes  easily  to  the  monstrous  crime  of  wearing  our 
winged  allies  for  personal  adornment.  Study  the 
place  where  you  propose  to  build  until  you  know  ex- 
actly all  there  is  around  you  that  you  can  gather  into 
a  home  (gather  with  your  eyes  and  your  ears),  then 
plan  your  house  to  let  this  in  and  not  to  shut  it  out. 

There  should  be  not  only  wide  verandas,  but  bal- 
conies and  windows  that  are  bayed  to  the  light  — 
never  for  ornament  or  show,  but  always  for  use.  A 
sun-bath  window  to  the  east  and  a  sunset  window  to 
take  in  the  glow  of  evening  to  the  west  are  natural. 
Let  In  the  first  rays  of  the  vital  morning  and  gather 
to  yourselves  the  mellow  sweep  of  gold  at  evening. 
Our  relation  to  the  sun's  rays  is  hardly  appreciated. 
We  feed  by  absorption  as  well  as  by  digestion.  It 
is  a  good  thing  to  let  the  sunlight  touch  us  all  over 
as  often  as  possible;  by  no  means  shut  it  out  of  the 
house.     Associate  yourself  with  the  light. 

Your  best  property  in  this  world  is  not  your  mead- 
ows and  your  pastures,  your  cornfields  and  your  or- 
chards, but  that  property  of  yours  which  is  much 
farther  away,  in  the  valleys,  or  even  in  the  skies. 
Nothing  is  more  absurd  than  a  few  windows  slashed 
into  a  house  anywhere  and  looking  nowhere  in  par- 
ticular, and  even  these  shrouded  with  dust-collecting 
curtains.  Glass  is  not  half  enough  used  in  our 
houses.     The  whole  east  front  of  many  a  country 


BUILDING  THE  HOUSE  6i 

house  might  be  mostly  glass,  or  that  front  which  can 
let  in  most  of  the  glory  of  the  world  and  the  sky. 

Then  your  narrow  six-foot  or  seven-foot  veranda 
is  a  meaningless  as  well  as  a  useless  adjunct.  It  is 
just  big  enough  to  pinch  you,  and  not  large  enough 
to  give  you  comfort.  A  country  house  should  have 
ten  or  twelve  foot  verandas,  on  at  least  two  of  its 
sides,  or  all  around  it,  and  here  should  be  everything 
to  suggest  comfort  and  companionship  —  not  only 
hammocks  and  easy  chairs,  but  hammock  beds,  that 
by  day  can  be  drawn  up  under  the  roof. 

We  start  in  with  this  fixed  conviction,  that  in  the 
country  we  are  to  live  mostly  among  our  trees  and 
flowers,  and  that,  apart  from  a  few  forms  of  toil, 
the  house  is  to  be  used  only  when  we  need  to  get  out 
of  the  rain  or  the  snow.  If  you  cannot  agree  with 
me  on  this  point  you  may  as  well  lay  aside  this  book 
altogether.  We  do  not  need  to  be  under  cover  most 
of  the  time.  God  made  us  to  be  as  free  as  the  other 
creatures.  The  sky  Is  roof-  enough,  except  in  a 
storm. 

The  best  chairs  are  mossy  logs  and  the  brown 
lichen  turfs.  Our  sweetest  canaries  are  in  the  bushes, 
or  freely  hopping  about  the  apple  boughs.  Live  out 
of  doors  for  beauty  if  for  nothing  else,  for  It  will 
paint  your  cheeks,  while  indoors  will  make  them 
pallid;  for  health,  also,  and  for  long  life  drink  oxy- 
gen. Learn  to  walk,  not  merely  when  you  must,  but 
to  enjoy  It.  Get  Into  argument  with  the  folks  that 
live  in  the  glens  and  exchange  calls  with  the  birds 


62     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

at  their  houses.  Humanize  everything  about  you, 
and  be  yourself  humanized  in  turn. 

Your  house  should,  on  general  principles,  be  lo- 
cated as  near  the  center  of  your  property  as  possi- 
ble. Even  if  you  have  five  or  ten  acres,  you  may 
go  well  back  into  the  land  and  select  your  site  where 
you  can  command  the  scenery  most  freely  and  reach 
every  part  of  your  lot  with  the  least  waste  of  time 
and  travel.  If  It  seems  to  be  too  remote  from  the 
street,  causing  a  good  deal  of  travel  when  you  go  to 
the  village  or  to  a  neighbor,  remember  how  much 
travel  is  caused  when  you  go  to  your  fields  from  a 
house  built  on  one  side  of  the  land.  I  do  not  say  get 
exactly  in  the  middle,  but  on  some  commanding  posi- 
tion well  back  from  the  street. 

This  should  be  done,  if  for  no  other  reason,  to 
avoid  that  conventionality  which  repeats  what  has 
been  done  by  our  neighbors.  But  we  would  do  it 
also  to  escape  the  dust  of  the  highway  and  the  noise 
of  rattling  teams.  We  are  beginning  to  learn  the 
advantage  of  quiet  for  American  nerves.  It  is  not 
necessary  for  us  to  see  every  Dick  and  Harry  that 
goes  up  and  down  the  highway,  nor  to  study  fashions 
from  our  parlor  windows.  It  Is  very  rare  that  con- 
venience of  drainage  and  commanding  position  would 
set  a  house  near  the  road. 

I  do  not  fancy  architectural  beauty  that  ends  In 
Itself.  If  you  employ  an  architect,  look  out  for  a 
man  who  is  free  from  the  crotchets  of  his  profession. 
He  will  be  likely  to  plan  for  you  an  up-to-date  com- 


BUILDING  THE  HOUSE  63 

bination  of  artistic  features,  and  a  house  that  after 
you  had  constructed  it  as  your  home,  would  be  exactly 
as  appropriate  on  your  neighbor's  lot  as  your  own. 
Understand  that  this  house  of  yours  is  to  fit  your  con- 
ditions and  to  do  it  exactly.  Beware  of  "  ginger- 
bread work,"  as  it  is  aptly  called  —  those  fanciful 
adornments  that  make  lots  of  trouble  as  well  as  cost, 
are  easily  broken,  and  soon  get  to  be  a  veritable  nui- 
sance. 

I  know  one  house  in  the  country  that  is  painted  in 
checks,  like  a  Highlander's  plaid,  because  there  is 
something  of  the  sort  in  a  neighboring  city.  Down 
our  valley  stands  an  octagon  house,  possibly  eco- 
nomical of  room,  but  out  in  Nature  It  is  an  oddity. 
I  do  not  think  that  Nature  ever  built  an  octagon  any- 
where. Neither  man  nor  house  should  be  so  conspic- 
uously peculiar  as  to  defy  Nature  —  and  stand 
around  like  sheared  evergreens,  or  hedges  that  are 
trimmed  box  style,  with  crowing  cocks  on  top. 

In  the  country  we  seldom  need  to  climb  very  hlghi 
Into  the  air.  Two  stories  are  enough  for  a  house, 
but  learn  to  abominate  half  stories  with  their  hot 
attics.  If  a  magnificent  landscape  Is  to  be  com- 
manded, of  course  a  three-story  house  Is  to  be  tol- 
erated —  at  any  rate  get  at  your  property  that  lies 
In  the  distance.  The  first  floor,  however.  Is  where 
we  should  live ;  with  stairs  as  few  as  possible.  There 
Is  land  enough  In  the  country,  and  we  should  broaden 
out  at  the  bottom. 

Of  course,  this  general  rule  must  be  modified  where 


64     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

the  land  is  so  level  that  the  nights  are  foggy.  On 
some  of  our  flats  I  would  not  like  to  sleep  in  the 
lower  story.  This,  however,  we  do  not  mean  to  take 
into  our  estimate  very  largely  when  seeking  a  country 
home.  Up  to  the  present  most  people  can  find  for 
themselves  purchasable  property  that  does  not  lie 
low  or  too  level. 

If  your  house  is  built  on  a  steep  hillside  I  advise 
you  to  anchor  it  well  in,  that  is,  let  the  basement  be 
excavated  into  the  side  of  the  hill,  and  in  that  base- 
ment arrange  your  cellars,  your  laundry-room,  your 
furnace  room,  and  possibly  your  kitchen.  In  this 
way  you  get  both  strength  and  protection.  Above 
all,  you  can  easily  create  a  wholesale  apple  cellar, 
frost  proof,  but  cool  enough  for  keeping  your  fruit 
sound  until  May  or  June.  Good  cellars  are  a  rar- 
ity, and  bad  ones  are  abominable,  as  well  as  danger- 
ous. 

These  basements  should  not  be  mere  dugouts,  but 
the  most  carefully  planned  and  constructed  part  of 
the  house.  Sometimes  in  excavating  you  will  touch  a 
vein  of  water;  carry  it  carefully  through  your  cellar 
or  basement  and  put  it  to  use  for  your  hot  water  fur- 
nace and  your  laundry.  It  will  not  be  at  all  out  of 
place  if  it  run  through  your  apple  cellar  and  so  keep 
the  fruit  from  drying  and  wasting. 

There  should  be  no  back  side  to  a  house.  It 
should  front  all  ways,  only  with  a  different  outlook; 
for  there  is  no  direction  in  which  you  will  not  find 
the  beautiful,  and  the  most  beautiful  very  often  lies 


BUILDING  THE  HOUSE  65 

right  in  the  rear  of  a  country  house,  where  there  arc 
slop  holes  and  shiftlcssness  which  spoil  everything. 
You  ought  to  be  able  to  walk  around  a  house  in  the 
country  without  distress,  or  catching  a  bad  odor,  and 
there  ought  to  be  an  equally  cheerful  welcome  for  you 
with  porches  and  balconies,  on  all  sides.  Around 
the  kitchen  door  particularly  there  should  be  neatness 
and  sweetness. 

Keep  clean  on  all  sides,  and  do  not  indulge  your- 
self in  slovenliness  out  of  sight  of  the  street.  This 
is  one  reason  for  building  back  from  the  highway;  it 
puts  you  on  your  honor  to  be  decent,  and  to  develop 
the  beautiful.  Besides  this  you  will  feel  that  your 
home  is  not  built  for  others  to  look  at,  but  for  your- 
self to  see,  and  to  smell.  Flower  beds  are  preferable 
to  ash  heaps  and  decaying  refuse. 

Your  house  should  be  adjusted  to  all  other  build- 
ings on  your  place.  There  is  no  reason  under  the 
sun  why  a  barn  should  be  less  beautiful  or  attractive 
than  a  house.  Often  of  an  evening  I  sit  in  an  easy- 
chair  at  my  barn  door  to  enjoy  the  moonlight.  As 
I  have  told  you  before,  cows  and  horses  like  cleanli- 
ness and  they  understand  the  beautiful.  Cows  will 
generally  lie  down  with  their  faces  toward  the  har- 
vest moon.  For  this  reason  humanize  all  the  build- 
ings where  your  animals  are  housed. 

My  laboratory,  of  which  I  shall  speak  more  very 
soon,  is  an  adjunct  to  the  barn.  I  would  make  the 
bee  yard  also  a  charming  place,  not  a  tight  little  in- 
closure  to  be  stung  in.     If  the  yard  is  large  and 


66     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

shady,  with  basswood  trees  reaching  over,  you  will 
find  your  bee  yard  a  very  peaceable  place,  where  you 
can  sit  and  enjoy  the  marvelous  industry  and  skill  of 
your  winged  allies.  In  other  words,  create  harmony 
in  all  parts  of  your  place  and  have  no  part  that  is 
dissevered  from  the  human. 

A  foul  stable  or  outhouse  is  not  only  bad  in  itself, 
but  it  spoils  the  whole  thing.  You  will  find  dirt  to  be 
a  disease.  Dirty  stables  mean  a  dirty  disposition  to 
begin  with  and  will  breed  dirty  dispositions  in  the 
children,  and  there  will  be  traces  elsewhere.  Piles 
of  old  lumber  and  ash  piles  and  other  refuse  can  just 
as  well  be  put  into  the  compost  pile  as  be  scattered 
about  in  disorder,  but  a  barnyard  ankle  deep  with 
rotting  stuff  is  an  unendurable  waste  and  an  abomina- 
tion. Clean  up,  and  let  your  animals  have  tidy  quar- 
ters; even  the  pig  likes  cleanliness.  I  have  grape 
vines  running  all  over  my  barn,  and  plum  trees  hang- 
ing over  the  fence,  as  well  as  a  big  apple  tree  that 
spreads  its  shade  at  noon  day. 

Animals  degenerate  in  disagreeable  surroundings 
as  surely  as  they  become  humanized  by  humane  sur- 
roundings and  treatment.  My  neighbor  Harding 
built  a  house  over  his  barn  well,  "  Because,  sir !  my 
horses,  eight  in  number,  would  take  two  hours  drink- 
ing every  morning  and  every  night;  for  they  would 
be  looking  over  the  valley.  I  think,  sir,  you  have 
observed  that  horses  know  more  about  Nature  than 
some  folk." 

I  took  blinders  from  my  harnesses  long  ago,  be- 


BUILDING  THE  HOUSE  67 

cause  my  beautiful  Morgan  saw  as  much  and  en- 
joyed as  much  as  1  did.  I  wished  when  traveling  to 
keep  her  In  full  sympathy  with  myself.  The  result 
was  that  she  helped  me  through  many  a  pinch  with 
broken  shafts  and  straps  on  dangerous  hillsides. 

You  should  know  that  there  are  Intelligible  lan- 
guages all  about  you  and  you  can  much  better  spare 
Latin  and  Greek  than  catbird  speech  and  robin  po- 
etry. Do  not  be  fooled  by  the  school  houses ;  you 
were  born  in  an  academy;  you  live  in  a  university. 
For  this  reason  I  hold  it  to  be  immensely  important 
that  you  get  your  whole  place  into  harmony,  one  part 
with  the  other.  Let  the  whole  be  a  study,  and  as  for 
the  birds,  let  them  comprehend  that  the  nearer  they 
are  to  you  the  less  they  are  in  danger  of  losing  lib- 
erty or  life. 

Finish  the  whole  house  In  wood,  ceiling  It  with  any 
native  lumber  that  you  can  secure,  for  there  Is  hardly 
one  of  them  that  cannot  be  finished  admirably.  But- 
ternut and  chestnut  and  cherry  are  often  attainable, 
and  they  are  exquisite  for  house  finishing.  In  the 
South  I  use  Florida  pine  (the  yellow  pine  of  com- 
merce) and  It  Is  beautiful  Indeed.  It  is  not  impos- 
sible to  secure  enough  curled  pine  to  finish  our  houses 
elegantly.  Nothing  can  excel  curled  black  walnut, 
and  even  yet  in  some  of  the  best  wooded  Western 
States  this  is  obtainable.  Maple  puts  itself  forward 
in  many  charming  variegations. 

When  we  learn  to  put  a  little  thought  to  this  busi- 
ness and  get  rid  of  plaster,  we  shall  not  only  greatly 


68     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

reduce  the  work  of  building,  but  we  shall  find  oppor- 
tunities for  making  our  houses  more  beautiful,  as  well 
as  wholesome.  Lath  and  plaster  are  an  inheritance 
of  poverty.  They  involve  incessant  dust  and  break- 
age, repapering  for  fashion,  and  nothing  is  ever 
quite  tidy;  with  all  the  rest  they  are  the  hiding  place 
of  germs,  if  we  have  sickness  in  the  house.  Your 
ceiled  wall  may  be  oiled  over  at  any  time,  and  fumi- 
gation cleanses  it  much  more  easily.  I  have  known 
typhoid  fever  to  be  passed  on  to  three  successive  fam- 
ilies of  tenants,  in  a  very  handsome  house,  until  the 
plaster  was  entirely  removed,  and  the  house  could 
then  be  made  sanitary. 

This  may  be  a  hobby  of  mine,  all  the  same  I  feel 
capable  of  defending  it.  Apart  from  this  I  hold 
that  natural  wood,  finished  in  oil  alone,  is  the  most 
beautiful  wall  that  can  be  built.  We  have  not  yet 
learned  to  appreciate  the  beauty  hidden  under  the 
rough  bark  of  our  maples  and  beeches  and  walnuts 
and  hickories  and  pines.  They  constitute  a  study  as 
well  as  a  charm. 

The  original  house  of  our  Saxon  fathers  was  called 
the  All,  and  it  consisted  of  but  one  room.  Here  the 
whole  family  lived,  dined,  and  slept.  This  All  was 
gradually  differentiated  into  apartments,  leaving  at 
last  the  All  as  a  Hall.  The  kitchen  or  workroom 
came  off  first;  then  sleeping  rooms  for  the  more  dis- 
tinguished. We  have  now  a  house  subdivided  to  ex- 
press the  tastes  and  whims  of  civilization.  Until 
very  recently  the  kitchen  was  the  home  room,  the  so- 


BUILDING  THE  HOUSE  69 

clal  center  of  the  house,  the  workshop  and  labora- 
tory, where  everything  was  accomplished  as  a  family 
matter,  and  individuality  was  only  partly  considered 
In  sleeping  rooms. 

Bridget  entered  to  break  up  this  social  life,  and 
now  we  have  to  provide  for  It  with  what  we  call  a 
living  room  or  home  room,  while  the  kitchen  has  been 
degraded  into  an  outside  apartment,  where  no  mem- 
ber of  the  real  family  Is  more  than  tolerated  or 
allowed  to  pass  through.  In  this  country-home 
house  of  ours,  I  would  first  of  all  restore  the  kitchen 
to  Its  pristine  dignity  as  a  food  laboratory.  I  dream 
of  the  old-time  kitchen  of  my  boyhood,  where  the 
little  mother  presided  with  a  science  and  dignity  that 
far  exceeded  any  glory  that  can  be  secured  by  suf- 
fragettes. 

I  place  the  main  room  of  a  country  home,  after  the 
kitchen,  as  first  the  home  room.  This  Is  the  gather- 
ing place,  the  social  life  All,  where  we  grow  together, 
exchange  thought,  blend  emotions,  and  learn  to  be 
truthful,  faithful,  and  loving  —  bearing  one  anoth- 
er's burdens.  The  best  part  of  piety  Is  home  piety, 
social  good  will  and  helpfulness.  This  home  room 
should  have  the  best  Inlook  and  the  best  outlook  of 
the  house  —  full  of  Inspiration,  sweetness,  and  sun- 
shine. 

Next  to  this  I  place  the  mother's  room,  where  the 
babes  begin  life  and  child  character  Is  shaped.  It 
should  be  a  quiet  and  sunny  room,  taking  In  a  lot  of 
morning  and  free  from  any  sort  of  casual  Intrusion. 


70     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

After  this  every  member  of  the  family  should  have 
one  room  to  himself  or  herself,  in  which  to  grow  his 
own  Individual  tastes.  Sleeping  together  Is  irrational 
and  generally  destructive  to  health  and  character. 
There  is  no  need  of  it  In  a  country  house. 

A  library  is  needed  In  a  modern  house,  unless  pov- 
erty forbids  it.  In  the  latter  case  every  child  should 
be  taught  to  collect  a  few  choice  books  for  himself 
In  his  own  private  room.  The  family  room  is  for 
music,  and  not  for  books  or  for  pictures.  It  is  not 
the  place  for  reading,  but  for  social  life.  However, 
beware  of  book  dissipation,  the  book  disease  that  has 
run  over  Into  our  generation.  Fifty  years  ago  a  book 
was  a  book,  and  half  a  dozen  dotted  a  year,  but  now 
they  are  poured  in  upon  us  like  a  Galveston  flood. 
A  book  at  the  best  is  only  a  translation  of  Nature, 
and  here  In  the  country  it  is  not  right  that  you  should 
be  able  to  read  books  and  not  Nature  Itself.  Learn 
to  listen  to  the  birds  and  the  brooks  and  to  see  for 
yourself. 

But  I  would  have,  either  as  a  part  of  the  barn  or 
the  house,  a  shop  and  a  laboratory.  Ours  Is  an  age 
of  industrialism,  and  at  least  one-third  of  our  chil- 
dren are  born  with  an  instinct  for  tools.  This  Is 
growing  on  us,  and  It  Is  a  good  thing.  When  our 
children  are  born  to  do,  as  well  as  to  learn,  to  think 
for  themselves  and  act,  rather  than  to  stuff  their  mem- 
ories with  book  Information,  It  will  be  vastly  better 
for  us. 

The  laboratory  should  be  a  large  room  and  simply 


BUILDING  THE  HOUSE  71 

prepared  for  studying  insects,  plants,  soils,  and  what- 
ever else  constitutes  country  property.  The  boys 
and  girls  may  need  some  instruction  here  to  start 
them  on  a  line  of  thorough  investigation,  but  they 
should  make  their  own  collections  of  the  friends  and 
enemies  of  our  fruits  and  flowers,  until  they  are  cap- 
able of  original  investigation.  This  will  be  a  source 
of  infinite  pleasure  and  such  satisfaction  as  no  one 
ever  gets  from  reading  the  investigations  of  others. 

The  shop  should  be  an  adjacent  room,  with  lathes 
and  engines  and  a  chance  for  making  tools  as  well  as 
using  them.  Here  broken  tools  can  be  repaired, 
wood  sawed,  apples  ground  into  cider,  and  a  whole  lot 
of  farm  industries  accomplished.  These  two  rooms 
will  pay  one  hundred  fold  on  their  cost. 

Somewhere  about  a  country  house  there  should  be 
what  I  would  call  a  household  shop  room  or  sewing 
room,  the  center  of  household  Industries  apart  from 
the  cooking.  It  is  absurd  to  find  a  pile  of  half-made 
clothing,  with  needles  and  thimbles  In  your  chair.  In 
the  dining  room  or  library,  anywhere  and  every- 
where. A  snug  and  tidy  room  should  hold  all  this, 
with  an  up-to-date  sewing  machine.  I  have  a  sewing 
balcony,  opening  from  my  wife's  room,  and  grown 
over  with  a  magnificent  grapevine.  Here  is  sup- 
posed to  be  done  that  sort  of  work  which  I  have  de- 
scribed; at  any  rate  It  Is  a  delightful  spot  for  gossip 
and  needlework. 

Give  your  wife  and  daughters  just  as  good  accom- 
modations as  you  take  for  yourself  and  your  sons.     I 


72     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

say  nothing  about  a  play  room,  because  in  the  coun- 
try there  is  room  enough  out  of  doors.  I  have  very 
little  patience  for  a  man  in  the  country  who  must 
have  a  bilHard  table  in  his  house,  and  who  is  out  of 
doors  "  securing  exercise  "  at  golf  links.  I  cannot 
see  such  a  fellow  without  a  desire  to  use  up  a  golf 
stick  about  his  legs.  There  is  his  share  of  work  in 
this  world  to  be  done  and  somebody  else  is  doing  it. 

I  am  not  arguing  against  games  for  the  young,  nor 
for  that  matter  against  games  for  the  old.  Only  I 
would  like  to  have  you  turn  the  intelligent  and  joy- 
ous side  of  work  to  the  front  and  let  the  young  people 
learn  that  work  need  not  be  a  task,  but  that  it  may  be 
and  ought  to  be  a  pleasure. 

Let  your  house  be  thought  out  thoroughly,  in  every 
item,  with  full  consideration  of  your  own  individual- 
ity and  the  peculiarities  of  everyone,  young  or  old. 
Good  air  and  good  water  should  be  provided 
throughout  the  whole  house.  A  bath  room  is  an 
absolute  requirement,  not  for  delicate  bathing,  but 
for  plenty  of  splashing  and  fun  —  a  place  for  chil- 
dren to  learn  the  love  of  cleanliness.  Make  the  win- 
dows large  and  let  them  swing  or  slide.  There 
should  be  at  least  one  fireplace  in  every  country 
house,  and  in  the  Southern  States  it  should  be  one  of 
the  main  features  of  a  home.  In  my  Florida  house 
I  have  four,  for  sleeping  rooms,  library,  and  dining 
room.  It  takes  but  two  or  three  minutes  to  start  a 
glorious  blaze  with  pine  knots  or  cones,  and  fuel  is 
so  plentiful  that  you  are  not  inclined  to  economy. 


BUILDING  THE  HOUSE  73 

Morning  bathing  before  such  a  fire  is  made  a  lux- 
ury, and  a  chilly  evening  cannot  get  in  as  far  as  your 
bones.  As  soon  as  the  sun  is  up  the  fire  may  go  out, 
and  while  hunting  about  the  gardens  and  wondering 
at  the  evolutions  of  a  single  night  one  soon  forgets 
that  there  is  such  a  thing  as  a  house.  In  our  Nor- 
thern homes  the  fireplace  should  be  restored,  for  it 
was  the  most  homeful  and  delightful  center  of  the 
old-fashioned  house.  Its  heartiness  and  bigness 
should  not  be  contracted  Into  a  little  pinched-up  affair 
like  a  grate  for  coals. 

An  elaborate  country  house  is  too  frequently  noth- 
ing more  than  an  elaborate  death  trap.  Underneath 
we  begin  with  a  cellar  which  Is  disagreeable,  if  not 
damp,  and  is  generally  the  receptacle  of  waste  vege- 
tables and  molds,  from  which  poisonous  air  rises 
through  all  the  floors  and  becomes  dangerous  when 
the  windows  are  closed  in  winter.  Then  we  have  our 
hot-air  furnaces,  that  not  only  burn  and  taint  the 
air,  but  send  up  through  the  registers  a  cloud  of  poi- 
sonous dust.  These  furnaces  are  breeding  disease 
more  dangerous  than  sharp  exposure  to  the  cold  air. 
I  prefer  the  old-fashioned  stove. 

The  hot-water  furnace  Is  not  only  the  most  agree- 
able but  the  safest.  The  most  dangerous  thing  that 
we  come  in  contact  with  Is  dust  —  furnace  dust,  cur- 
tain dust,  carpet  dust,  that  is  regularly  swept  up  Into 
the  air  two  or  three  times  a  day  In  the  name  of  clean- 
liness. Examine  a  bit  of  this  dirt  In  a  spectroscope, 
and  you  will  find  that  It  Is  made  up  of  particles  of 


74     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

every  sort  of  decay,  metallic  and  vegetable  —  not 
infrequently  poisonous,  at  all  events  dangerously  irri- 
tating to  lungs  and  throat.  Both  in  furnishing  and 
in  heating  your  house  look  out  for  dust  creators  and 
dust  catchers. 

When  the  house  Is  done  and  well  filled  with  your- 
self, do  not  become  a  slave  to  decoration.  Let  the 
beautiful  wood  which  you  have  used  be  finished  with- 
out any  paint  or  varnish,  oiling  only  the  floors. 
There  Is  every  reason  why  your  rooms  should  not 
stand  on  exhibition,  as  specimens  of  art,  where  every 
manufacturer  may  display  his  new  varnishes,  and 
the  whole  house  itself  Invite  attention  from  the  street. 
On  the  contrary,  the  house  should  drop  into  the  foli- 
age with  ease  and  grace,  so  that  one's  eyes  shall  easily 
pass  to  the  garden  and  orchard. 

No  one  can  come  near  some  of  these  high-toned 
buildings  without  feeling  that  he  must  be  In  full 
dress,  instinctively  dropping  every  thought  of  sim- 
plicity and  frankness  at  the  gateway.  For  the  out- 
side of  a  country  house  a  warm  red  with  dark-green 
borders  Is  almost  always  acceptable  to  garden  sur- 
roundings. Run  It  all  over  with  vines  and  surround 
It  with  shrubs  and  roses ;  you  can  hardly  overdo  this 
matter  of  concealment.  There  Is  nothing  quite  so 
homely  and  so  homeful  as  the  grapevine,  and  this 
I  would  use  very  freely  over  a  country-house.  It 
is  not  only  beautiful  In  Itself,  but  it  Is  a  great  food 
provider  and  an  ozone  breather;  love  It  and  praise  It. 

Select  sweet  flowers,  those  giving  delicious  odors, 


BUILDING  THE  HOUSE  75 

especially  at  night,  for  they  are  great  givers  of  ozone 
and  health.  There  is  a  very  common  notion  abroad 
that  night  air  is  unwholesome,  and  I  know  many 
country  dwellers  who  will  shut  it  out  with  closed 
windows.  There  is  not  the  least  basis  for  this  blun- 
der, for  Nature  has  provided  a  host  of  health-giving 
flowers  and  plants  for  the  night,  and  these  open  along 
toward  sunset,  inviting  moths  to  share  their  charm. 
Among  these  the  honeysuckle  is  notable,  and  you 
cannot  plant  It  too  freely  around  your  house. 

There  is  a  difference  also  in  the  homefulness  of 
trees,  and  this  you  must  think  about  when  you  sur- 
round your  house.  A  beech-nut  tree,  where  the  sun 
and  air  can  get  well  at  it,  is  an  ideal  for  a  near-by 
lawn,  and  it  is  sweet  beyond  comparison.  I  know 
of  nothing  better  than  a  big,  hearty  beech  tree  to 
sit  under  during  the  daytime;  but  to  hang  Its  big 
arms  right  over  the  roof  of  the  house  there  is  nothing 
better  than  the  old-fashioned  and  child-beloved  but- 
ternut. Then  among  fruit  trees  I  like  best  for  near 
company  the  hearty  pear  trees,  that  lean  over  and 
drop  their  fruit  on  our  roofs. 

"  O  sound  to  rout  the  brood  of  cares, 
The  sweep  of  scythe  in  morning  dew ; 
The  gust  that  round  the  garden  flew 
And  tumbled  half  the  mellowing  pears." 

But  why  not  live  right  in  the  heart  of  an  apple  or- 
chard? There  is  no  tree  In  the  world  more  beautiful 
than  these  off-hand  apple  trees,  from  the  time  that 


76     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

they  burst  out  into  a  cloud  of  pink-and-white  flowers 
until  they  hang  their  arms  down  full  of  Spitzen- 
bergs  and  pippins.  One  may  love  an  apple-tree 
with  a  personal  tenderness;  as  for  myself  I  remember 
nothing  with  more  joy  than  climbing  into  the  top  of 
the  huge  Kirkland  orchard  trees,  to  sit  among  the 
red  streaks  and  look  over  the  Oriskany  Valley. 
There  were  birds'  nests  all  around  me,  and  every  hol- 
low tree  had  an  owl  or  a  yellow-hammer.  It  is  a 
whimsical  fashion,  without  a  bit  of  good  sense  in  it, 
that  excludes  fruit  trees  from  our  lawns. 

Furnish  your  house  simply  and  let  it  be  substan- 
tial furniture.  Not  a  single  article  should  display 
pride  or  ignorance.  We  lack  the  furnishing  Instinct. 
All  sorts  of  things  are  tumbled  into  our  houses, 
mainly  glued  together  and  crudely  varnished.  Stiff 
and  fussy  furniture  that  you  cannot  sit  upon  easily 
is  a  bad  display.  I  am  Inclined  to  believe  strongly 
In  that  which  comes  to  me  as  "  knock-down  furni- 
ture," for  It  gives  me  the  more  substantial  forms  of 
tables,  desks,  and  chairs,  within  reach  of  a  common 
man's  purse. 

Detest  a  varnished  floor.  It  looks  slippery,  even 
If  it  is  not,  and  it  Is  always  getting  scratched.  It  Is 
probable  that  you  have  something  else  to  do  in  the 
world  besides  revarnishing.  Neither  Is  there  any 
reason  for  expensive  plumbing,  something  a  little 
more  costly  in  proportion  than  the  rest  of  the  house. 
Get  a  bright-brained  carpenter  and  he  can  fit  up 
your  bath  room  with  a  substantial  tub  and  whatever 


BUILDING  THE  HOUSE  77 

else  is  needed  at  one  fourth  the  ordinary  cost  of 
such  furnishing.  If  mosquitoes  and  flies  abound, 
inclose  your  balconies  and  verandas  with  close  wire 
netting,  a  very  inexpensive  method,  but  very  last- 
ing; it  will  give  you  that  sort  of  comfort  without 
small  annoyances,  which  the  householder  rarely  en- 
joys. 

Remember  all  this  while  that  the  absolute  basis 
of  a  happy  and  successful  country  home  is  health, 
(Our  Anglo-Saxon  fathers  called  it  wholth  —  that 
is,  wholeness.)  You  must  keep  whole  for  there  will 
always  be  all  that  a  sound  man  and  a  sound  family 
can  do,  and  you  must  learn  to  keep  your  family  al- 
ways vital,  physically  and  morally  clean  cut,  and  full 
of  executive  ability.  This  condition  will  depend 
very  largely  on  how  you  build  and  keep  your  house ; 
also  largely  upon  cleanliness  everywhere,  on  drain- 
age as  well  as  ventilation;  but  perhaps  most  of  all 
on  wholesome  food,  home  grown  and  brain  prepared. 

Eating  three  times  a  day  should  forbid  a  single 
mouthful  between  meals,  and  for  most  people  two 
meals  a  day  is  quite  enough  —  made  up  largely  of 
fruit  and  vegetables  and  cereals,  with  very  little  meat. 
Go  to  your  rooms  at  eight  or  nine  at  night  and  arise 
with  the  daylight.  The  law  of  a  true  life  and  a 
happy  one  Is  temperance  and  simplicity,  with  a  satis- 
fied mind.  Take  as  your  maxim,  from  Edward  Ev- 
erett Hale,  "  Look  up,  not  down;  look  forward  and 
not  back;  look  out,  not  in;  and  lend  a  hand." 

But  if  you  will  not  obey  the  laws  of  Nature  and 


78     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

lead  the  simple  life,  then  the  country  is  no  whit 
better  for  you  than  the  city.  It  will  give  you  no 
health  perforce,  and  in  the  end  you  will  go  back  to 
the  city  dissatisfied.  Good  air  and  the  perfume  of 
clover  and  corn  blossoms  cannot  negative  the  virus 
of  gin  and  tobacco.  Nature  does  well  to  give  over 
the  lazy  and  the  drunken  to  weeds  and  waste.  Hu- 
man waste  is  the  meanest  thistle  in  the  crowd. 


CHAPTER  IV 

ABOUT  MAKING  GARDENS 

WE  have  built  our  house,  and  the  prelimin- 
aries having  been  properly  attended  to, 
have  not  left  us  where  many  are  left  after 
building.  We  already  have  our  drives,  there  are 
some  shade  trees,  and  our  drainage  has  been  taken 
care  of,  while  our  well  gives  us  unfailing  water  that 
is  absolutely  pure,  and  our  cisterns  are  the  house- 
keeper's joy.  Now  we  want  our  gardens  —  dear 
old  English  for  yard-inns,  that  is,  little  inclosures 
for  good  things  to  eat  and  to  look  at.  What  we 
really  want  to  create  here  in  the  country  is  a  gar- 
den home. 

May  is  the  garden  month  for  New  England  and 
the  whole  orchard  belt,  clear  across  the  continent, 
although  April  has  already  put  in  our  early  potatoes 
and  our  first  planting  of  peas,  as  well  as  spinach  and 
a  little  bed  of  carrots  and  beets  for  early  soups 
and  greens.  If  these  first  things  were  provided 
for  as  they  should  have  been,  we  are  already  hoe- 
ing one  side  of  the  garden,  while  planting  some- 
where else.  But  in  a  well  laid-out  country  home 
there  will  not  be  so  much  one  garden  as  half  a  dozen 
garden  spots. 

79 


8o     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

In  the  berry  garden  there  will  be,  here  and  there, 
strips  that  are  fit  for  a  few  rows  of  corn  or  beans. 
I  learned  a  lesson  from  a  Western  boy  who  was  left 
in  charge  of  my  vacation  home  while  I  was  in  the 
Western  States  preaching.  Showing  me  about  his 
celery  and  his  potatoes,  he  led  me  at  last  into  the 
cornfield,  and  there  in  the  middle,  all  out  of  sight, 
was  a  melon  patch  two  or  three  rods  square. 

He  chuckled  and  I  laughed,  for  what  marauder 
would  think  of  hunting  melons  in  such  a  place? 
I  find  there  are  two  things  that  boys  and  men  feel 
it  is  no  sin  to  steal  —  grapes  and  melons ;  yet  these 
are  the  very  things  that  give  us  most  trouble  to  grow 
successfully  and  the  loss  of  which  we  most  keenly 
feel. 

The  reason  for  spreading  our  garden-making  over 
several  weeks  is,  in  the  first  place,  that  some  things 
will  stand  frost,  while  others,  like  beans  and  corn, 
cannot  resist  the  chills  that  are  pretty  sure  to  come 
in  April.  The  old-fashioned  rule  was  not  to  plant 
corn  until  the  twentieth  of  May,  but  those  who  plant 
sweet  corn  for  succession  can  venture  the  first  plant- 
ing about  the  first  of  the  month.  The  second  plant- 
ing can  come  immediately  after  a  frost,  if  one  occur, 
and  at  any  rate  about  the  middle  of  the  month. 
Plant  sweet  corn  every  two  weeks  until  the  middle 
of  June.  Follow  the  same  rule  with  peas,  and  in 
this  way  you  get  a  succession  of  good  stuff  for  the 
table  until  October. 

For  my  part  I  cannot  get  on  without  "  greens." 


ABOUT  MAKING  GARDENS  8i 

Spinach  Is  not  my  hobby,  although  I  like  it  well, 
and  in  the  South  I  am  able  to  grow,  or  collect,  all 
that  I  want  of  scoke  and  sorrel.  The  first  of  these 
is  called  the  "  Southern  spinach."  The  easiest  of 
all  greens  to  grow  is  Swiss  chard  —  a  plant  closely 
resembling  the  beet,  but  without  eatable  root,  while 
the  whole  strength  of  the  plant  goes  to  making  leaf 
stalks  as  large  as  small  rhubarb  or  pie  plant.  Chard 
will  live  through  several  seasons,  and  you  may  cut  its 
stalks  all  through  May  and  June. 

Of  course  we  want  rhubarb  or  pie  plant  and  we 
must  have  asparagus.  Both  of  these  need  good 
strong  soil  and  to  be  kept  clean  of  weeds.  Pie  plant 
can  hardly  be  overfed.  Its  delicious  stalks  can  be 
hurried  somewhat  in  the  spring  by  setting  over  them 
headless  barrels.  I  believe  that  everybody  consid- 
ers beet  greens  one  of  the  best  early  vegetables.  To 
get  these,  sow  the  old-fashioned  blood  beets  and  not 
the  new-fangled  turnip  beets,  which  do  not  have  any 
stalks  worth  the  mention. 

For  late  corn,  string  beans,  and  peas,  one  Inust 
not  only  plant  in  succession,  but  understand  a  few 
tricks  of  the  gardener.  I  am  able  to  have  string 
beans,  that  is  of  the  pole  varieties,  until  the  very  last 
of  October  —  sometimes  well  into  November.  This 
is  done  by  breaking  down  a  few  poles  and  throwing 
corn  litter  or  straw  over  them  on  freezing  nights. 
The  beans  will  go  on  forming,  and  string  beans 
are  always  delicious.  I  do  not  grow  the  little  runted 
sorts  that  are  found  in  the  market,  but  varieties 


82     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

that  I  have  myself  originated.  These  are  eight 
inches  long  and  with  beans  in  them  are  three  inches 
around  —  not  quite  so  big  without  beans. 

Green  peas  can  be  had  on  the  table  until  the  first 
of  August  —  with  especial  care  till  the  middle  of 
that  month,  but  not  later,  for  very  late  plantings 
will  surely  mildew.  The  earliest  corn  should  come 
on  the  table  in  June,  and  the  later  sorts  should  not 
be  exhausted  before  October. 

I  told  you  how  my  boy  George  managed  to  grow 
some  fine  melons.  The  center  of  a  cornfield  not 
only  hides  the  delicious  fruit,  but  shelters  the  grow- 
ing vines  from  cool  nights  and  high  winds.  I  have 
since  tried  the  plan  myself  successfully.  But  you 
must  have  the  hills  well  made,  a  little  above  level 
and  of  rich  compost.  A  spoonful  of  hen  manure, 
well  mixed  with  the  dirt  —  be  sure  of  that  —  is  ex- 
cellent melon  food. 

Growing  vines  require  that  the  seeds  shall  not 
be  put  in  until  the  ground  is  warm;  with  me  this  is 
generally  about  the  first  of  June.  They  must  start 
quickly,  grow  quickly,  and  not  at  any  time  be  checked 
by  a  dry  spell.  If  there  is  not  abundant  rain,  take 
liquid  from  the  barnyard  manure  tank,  dilute  It  two 
thirds,  and  pour  a  quart  into  a  hole  dug  by  the  side 
of  the  hill. 

Now  just  here  let  me  stop  to  explain  the  philoso- 
phy of  watering.  As  generally  applied,  water  is  as 
likely  to  do  damage  as  service.  If  sprinkled  on  with 
a  hose  it  Is  almost  certain  to  cause  disaster.     This  is 


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ABOUT  MAKING  GARDENS  83 

true,  not  only  In  your  melon  patch,  but  in  your  straw- 
berry bed  and  among  your  flowers.  This  sprinkling 
rarely  wets  the  ground  more  than  half  an  inch  deep; 
a  quick  evaporation  then  takes  place,  and  the  surface 
of  the  ground  is  hardened.  As  soon  as  this  occurs  the 
absorption  of  atmospheric  moisture  ceases,  and  the 
plants  dry  up  far  more  rapidly  than  If  let  alone. 

If  you  water  at  all,  water  thoroughly.  Suppose 
you  desire  to  water  a  strawberry  bed;  let  one  per- 
son go  ahead  and  dig  a  hole  by  the  side  of  each 
plant;  Into  each  of  these  holes  pour  not  less  than 
a  pint  of  water  and  another  pint  soon  after;  then 
let  the  holes  be  filled  with  dry  dirt,  which  prevents 
evaporation.  The  water  is  In  there,  and  the  roots 
will  get  It.  Such  a  watering  ought  to  last  two  or 
three  days,  even  in  a  dry  time. 

I  had  better  add  a  simple  plan  of  Irrigation,  with- 
out what  we  call  watering  at  all.  The  simplest  way 
is  to  run  two-Inch  tile  underneath  the  plants,  below 
the  reach  of  the  cultivator.  When  Irrigation  be- 
comes necessary,  the  lower  outlet  of  the  tile  can  be 
blocked  and  the  water  turned  In.  When  the  tiles 
are  full  enough,  water  will  soak  out  Into  the  soil. 

A  plan  used  at  some  of  the  experiment  stations 
IS  to  let  water  run  through  V-shaped  troughs  made 
of  Inch  boards.  Water  Is  allowed  to  flow  from  the 
troughs  through  auger  holes.  Subirrlgation  Is  by 
all  means  the  best.  Running  the  cultivator,  to  keep 
the  surface  loose,  Is,  however,  the  best  plan  for  pre- 
venting the  escape   of  moisture   from   the   ground 


84     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

and  to  secure  its  ready  absorption  from  the  atmos- 
phere. This  is  not  possible  after  the  plants  get 
large  enough  to  cover  the  ground.  In  Florida  I 
find  that  subirrigation  Is  quite  important,  but  just 
now  a  system  of  overhead  pipes  for  sprinkling  is 
quite  popular. 

I  would  not  undertake  to  run  a  garden  without  a 
thorough  understanding  of  mulching.  Mulching 
means  placing  a  quantity  of  loose  material  over 
the  dirt  and  around  each  plant  that  we  set  or 
grow.  It  is  a  term  generally  applied  to  planting 
trees,  but  you  should  mulch  all  plants  —  asters,  and 
other  flowers  moved  from  your  hot  bed,  your  roses 
and  shrubs,  beans,  potatoes,  strawberries,  and  rasp- 
berries, as  well  as  your  apples  and  pears. 

When  you  have  one  of  your  petunias  or  pansles 
well  pressed  into  the  ground,  place  around  it  a 
double  handful  of  light  compost  to  prevent  the  evap- 
oration of  moisture  from  the  soil.  When  you  have 
transferred  your  tomato  plants  from  the  hot  bed, 
put  around  each  one  a  shovelful  of  compost.  There 
is  not  a  thing  that  you  can  plant  or  transplant  that 
will  not  be  the  safer  with  this  treatment.  If  a  dry 
spell  comes  on,  your  little  plants  will  still  keep  fresh 
and  green.  The  compost  that  you  use  should  be 
well-rotted  manure,  made  of  old  leaves,  barn  manure, 
and  coal  ashes. 

The  best  way  to  plant  potatoes  is  under  a  com- 
plete covering  of  old  straw  or  grass.  In  Florida 
I  use  the  fall  grass,  which  Is  of  little  value  as  hay. 


ABOUT  MAKING  GARDENS  85 

The  potatoes  will  come  up  through  this,  and  they 
will  need  neither  cultivating  nor  hoeing.  Over  your 
strawberry  bed,  as  cold  weather  comes  on,  spread 
a  covering  of  compost,  not  necessarily  quite  decom- 
posed, but  entirely  free  from  seeds.  In  the  spring 
rake  this  winter  protection  off  the  plants  Into  the 
alleys  and  let  It  stay  there  as  mulch,  to  be  plowed 
under  in  the  late  summer. 

So  you  may  go  from  garden  to  garden,  and  there 
is  not  a  spot  where  mulching  is  not  all  important. 
As  for  setting  roses  and  shrubs  without  mulch,  you 
will  lose  the  best  half  and  stunt  the  rest.  It  will 
require  watering  continually  to  keep  them  alive, 
whereas  mulch  would  have  saved  the  whole,  and  gen- 
erally without  irrigation.  I  want  you  to  put  em- 
phasis on  this  matter  of  mulching,  because  It  will 
save  you  a  lot  of  labor  and  vexation. 

So  we  make  garden  in  the  Northern  States  along 
from  April  till  July,  but  in  Florida  we  make  gar- 
den when  we  please  —  planting  Irish  potatoes  in 
February,  melons  in  March,  but  our  cabbages  are 
ready  for  cutting  in  January,  and  our  celery  and 
lettuce  we  harvest  three  times  a  year.  The  best  time 
to  make  garden  is  when  we  can  get  our  crops  ready 
to  touch  the  empty  Northern  market  ahead  of  any- 
body else.  Florida  laughs  at  all  other  lands,  be- 
cause it  can  put  its  peaches  into  Philadelphia  and 
New  York  two  weeks  earlier  than  Georgia,  and  it 
is  the  same  with  melons  and  cucumbers. 

However,  all  of  this  is  not  as  easy  as  play,  for  a 


86      HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

winter  garden  may  get  a  touch  of  frost  once  or  twice 
during  the  colder  months  —  any  time  from  Novem- 
ber first  to  March  first.  Plenty  of  water  to  sprinkle 
with  is  protective,  but  we  have  straw  or  grass  be- 
tween our  lines  of  peas  and  potatoes,  to  toss  over 
them  when  the  weather  threatens;  possibly  four  or 
five  times  during  the  winter.  Winter  is  also  our 
dry  season,  and  if  quite  dry,  we  need  a  gasoline  en- 
gine and  an  irrigating  system. 

I  am  not  going  to  write  an  essay  on  gardening, 
in  which  you  will  find  those  directions  commonly 
given  in  a  seedman's  catalogue,  for  in  any  case  you 
will  have  to  learn  most  of  your  gardening  by  experi- 
ence. I  shall  give  you  only  a  few  general  rules  that 
will  save  you  serious  mistakes  at  the  outset. 

In  the  first  place,  your  garden  land  must  be  ad- 
solutely  clean  and  well  tilled.  The  cleaning  must 
be  done  before  your  planting.  It  is  utter  folly  to 
undertake  to  hoe  quack  grass  out  of  a  strawberry 
bed. 

In  the  second  place,  vegetables  should  be  grown, 
as  a  rule,  where  the  ground  is  deep  and  rich,  and 
that  means  generally  near  your  barn.  You  need 
some  things,  however,  like  herbs  and  rhubarb  and 
lettuce,  near  the  house.  A  little  back-door  garden, 
made  very  rich,  is  extremely  handy  for  the  house- 
wife. Remember  always  that  house  slops,  which  are 
generally  thrown  away,  are  very  useful  around  gar- 
den plants,  and  are  especially  good  for  dahlias  and 
some  of  our  strongest  growing  flower  plants. 


ABOUT  MAKING  GARDENS  87 

Garden  land  must  also  be  capable  of  thorough 
drainage,  as  well  as  easily  irrigated.  A  soggy  spot 
will  grow  nothing  well,  while  a  few  tile  will  turn  the 
same  ground  Into  friable  soil,  giving  you  luxuriant 
growth.  This  is  true  of  trees  and  bushes  as  well  as 
vegetables  and  flowers.  Thirty  to  fifty  per  cent  of 
sand  is  all  right,  if  It  Is  well  worked  with  compost. 
Garden  land  will  have  to  be  well  fed,  because  we 
expect  it  to  do  a  lot  of  work.  Beans  and  peas, 
however,  feed  the  soil  Its  most  valuable  constituent, 
and  while  they  like  good  soil  they  also  make  good 
soil. 

This  wonderful  discovery  concerning  legumes  (In- 
cluding beans,  peas,  and  clovers)  is  recent,  and  no 
one  Is  fitted  to  be  a  gardener  unless  he  understands 
It.  The  legumes  are  the  only  plants  able  to  take  food 
directly  from  the  air,  and  after  using  it,  to  leave 
an  enriching  deposit  in  the  soil.  All  the  clovers 
will  do  this  for  our  meadows,  and  the  beans  and  the 
peas  will  do  It  for  our  gardens. 

In  the  Southern  States  we  have  a  much  larger  list 
of  these  air  feeders,  especially  cowpeas  and  velvet 
beans.  On  my  place  at  Clinton,  N.  Y.,  I  am  con- 
stantly making  spots  barren  for  corn  and  others 
poor  for  potatoes.  I  plant  these  with  beans,  and 
after  a  few  years  they  are  brought  back  to  corn 
fertility.  Bear  in  mind  these  three  or  four  prelim- 
inaries, and  you  will  learn  the  rest  as  you  go  on 
with  your  work.  Gardening,  however,  will  always 
be,  to  a  large  extent,  experimenting.     New  sorts  will 


88      HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

all  the  time  be  offering  themselves  for  propagation, 
and  you  will  yourself  originate  better  things. 

As  far  as  possible,  gardens  should  face  the  south- 
east, or  east,  and  take  In  as  much  as  possible  of  the 
morning  sun.  There  Is  more  growth  under  the 
morning  rays  than  under  the  noon  rays,  and  the 
rough  winds  do  not  sweep  as  freely  down  from  the 
northwest.  The  heat  accumulates  in  the  soil  during 
the  day,  and  there  is  less  danger  of  a  late  frost  In 
spring,  or  an  early  frost  In  autumn. 

Shade  suits  a  few  things  and  hot  noons  please 
other  plants,  but  on  the  whole  that  growth  Is  the 
most  perfect  and  the  most  rapid  which  takes  place 
under  the  morning  sun.  Corn  Is  an  Inca  and  likes 
sunshine  from  the  rising  to  the  setting,  but  potatoes 
will  grow  In  the  shadows.  In  the  fruit  garden  rasp- 
berries need  the  full  sun  and  all  they  can  get  of  it, 
but  currants  will  do  just  as  well  under  the  overarch- 
ing apple  trees. 

The  old-fashioned  garden  was  notable  mainly  for 
incessant  weeding.  I  recommend  to  the  country- 
home  maker  to  grow  very  little  of  that  which  re- 
quires the  owner  to  be  much  on  his  knees.  I  like 
a  little  of  this  sort  of  work  —  very  little,  and  what 
I  get  of  It  gives  a  relish  to  hammocks  and  veranda 
chairs.  I  am  willing  to  get  down  to  weed  one  or  two 
rows  of  beets  for  greens  and  a  few  carrots  for  early 
slicing  In  butter,  but  for  the  most  part  I  prefer  to 
buy  my  parsnips,  beets,  and  onions.  The  kitchen 
garden  which  I  have  spoken  of  before,  not  far  from 


ABOUT  MAKING  GARDENS  89 

the  door,  can  accommodate  a  few  herbs  and  turnips, 
and  such  things  as  the  mother  may  want  to  pull  in 
haste. 

The  right  sort  of  country  woman  is  coming  by  and 
by,  who  will  do  nearly  all  the  gardening  and  much 
of  the  fruit  picking.  I  do  not  think  a  woman  should 
do  only  indoors  work.  Hers  are  by  all  means  the 
hardest  tasks  in  ordinary  American  life  —  in  the 
country.  I  pity  the  dragged-out  housekeeper,  sweep- 
ing, dusting,  washing  dishes  —  what  a  dreary  and 
detestable  monotony  of  life.  The  coming  woman 
will  help  out  of  doors  and  the  coming  man  will  help 
with  the  work  Indoors. 

But  this  kitchen  garden  fits  the  Interlude,  as  work 
is  now  divided.  It  should  be  half  flowers  and  half 
vegetables,  with  a  corner  for  summer  savory  and 
sage.  These  two  are  about  all  the  herbs  that  we 
need,  provided  only  we  can  get  a  handful  of  celery 
seed  or  of  parsley  seed  when  we  want  It.  Perhaps 
it  might  be  as  well  to  keep  this  corner  open  to  a 
few  roots  of  parsley.  I  am  glad  to  say  that  cara- 
way and  fennel  seeds  are  not  as  much  In  use  as  for- 
merly. In  the  old-fashioned  days  we  had  to  nibble 
at  a  bunch  in  church  of  a  Sunday,  during  the  long 
sermons  and  prayers,  to  keep  our  heads  from  nod- 
ding. 

However,  let  the  woman  do  as  she  pleases;  this 
kitchen  garden  ought  also  to  be  full  of  whimsies  — 
where  a  woman's  hobbies  show  themselves  —  chang- 
ing every  year  If  she  desires.     I  have  my  hobbles 


90      HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

also  in  the  orchard  and  field.  Give  her  help  when 
she  asks  for  it,  and  make  no  masculine  remarks. 
Some  years  you  will  find  forget-me-nots  and  mi- 
gnonette; other  years  petunias  and  stocks. 

I  have  never  seen  a  real  Nature  lover  who  did  not 
change  likes  and  tastes.  I  have  had  my  dahlia  spells 
and  my  aster  years,  and  just  now  am  delighting  in 
phloxes  and  hollyhocks  —  the  nasturtium  alone  has 
remained  a  perennial  delight. 

I  am  sure  that  I  hear  you  say,  Where  now  Is  this 
garden  that  we  are  to  make?  So  far  as  we  can  see 
you  have  turned  our  whole  property  Into  one  great 
floral,  vegetable,  and  small-fruit  park.  Is  that  your 
notion  of  a  country  place  ?  You  have  hit  It  exactly. 
Every  corner  and  nook  of  a  country  home  should 
bloom  with  something  and  bear  something.  My 
new  neighbor  just  over  the  fence  asked  me  if  I 
objected  to  his  cutting  the  tendrils  of  a  huge  grape- 
vine that,  climbing  forty  feet  high  on  a  wild  cherry 
tree,  hung  down  in  great  loops  and  tangles  over  his 
way  as  well  as  mine. 

I  told  him  he  could  do  as  he  pleased,  but  I  would 
advise  him  to  wait  until  the  middle  of  May.  With 
May  every  line  and  loop  was  alive  with  flowers,  and 
the  fragrance  went  in  waves  over  his  lawn  and  Into 
his  house.  He  said,  "  I  would  not  cut  It  for  one 
hundred  dollars."  One  must,  however,  consider  his 
neighbors  in  planting,  for  If  trees  reach  over  they 
may  cause  a  quarrel;  somehow  the  more  acres  some 


ABOUT  MAKING  GARDENS  91 

people  have  the  more  uncomfortable  they  are  about 
boundary  lines. 

Apples  that  fall  over  the  bounds  belong  to  the 
land  where  they  fall.  If  a  grapevine  creeps  in- 
quisitively through  the  fence  your  neighbor  may 
shear  It  off  close  to  the  boards  —  that  is,  if  he  have 
a  bit  of  spite  in  him.  A  quarrel  is  always  in  reach 
of  the  quarrelsome.  Vegetables  make  less  quarrels, 
but  you  may  as  well  be  careful  about  your  compost 
piles  and  not  have  them  where  the  drainage  can  be 
complained  of. 

I  can  hardly  escape  the  necessity  of  making  one 
or  two  lists  for  you  in  the  way  of  best  things  to 
plant,  the  real  invaluables  for  a  quiet  country  gar- 
den, the  varieties  that  I  have  tested  and  am  willing 
to  endorse  as  first  rate.  Of  asparagus  there  is  noth- 
ing to  compare  with  the  improved  French  Argenteuil, 
a  variety  that  was  brought  to  this  country  and  first 
planted  in  South  Carolina.  It  is  the  earliest  by  ten 
days,  the  largest,  and  most  delicious.  In  market  it 
brings  twice  the  price  of  any  other  variety. 

If  you  love  this  vegetable  as  I  do,  you  will  have 
a  tidy  bed  at  least  two  rods  square,  and  it  will  be 
absolutely  clean  of  weeds.  A  good  plan  will  be  to 
throw  some  litter  over  your  asparagus  bed  as  a  win- 
ter covering  and  then  burn  it  over  as  soon  as  the 
snow  thaws  in  the  spring.  The  Conover's  Colossal 
is  the  variety  generally  grown  and  is  very  good,  but 
by  no  means  equal  to  the  Argenteuil. 


92      HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

Rhubarb,  or  pie  plant  as  the  housekeeper  calls  it, 
Is  generally  a  very  inferior  and  watery  affair,  but  the 
Linnaeus  is  an  improved  sort,  not  quite  so  big  as 
Victoria,  but  wonderfully  better.  I  grow  both  sorts, 
because  I  like  both  quality  and  quantity,  and  both 
these  sorts  are  good.  I  have  already  told  you  where 
to  grow  it,  where  it  can  get  the  richest  supply  of  food. 

I  have  never  seen  any  better  than  that  which  I 
saw  growing  just  outside  a  Maine  farmer's  barnyard. 
I  think  many  a  country  homestead  could  adopt  this 
plan  of  getting  very  early  and  very  luxuriant  spring 
sauce.  It  is  called  pie  plant  because  it  makes  delici- 
ous pies  —  when  it  is  worked  up  by  a  born  cook. 

Among  the  beans  there  is  nothing  to  compare  with 
the  new  Burpee  Improved  Bush  Lima.  This  is  a 
real  lima  bean  in  size  of  pod  and  bean,  but  grow- 
ing in  the  bush  form.  It  produces  magnificent  crops, 
six  inches  long,  full  size  beans,  and  moderately  early. 
Of  the  cabbages  you  must  find  out  by  experiment,  and 
the  same  with  the  celery,  for  there  are  dozens  of 
varieties  of  each  of  these  vegetables,  all  having 
claim  on  the  gardener.  A  small  family  in  the  coun- 
try can  grow  all  the  cabbages  they  can  use  by  set- 
ting plants  in  little  vacancies  among  the  berries  or 
melons. 

Celery  does  not  need  the  hard  work  that  was  for- 
merly given  to  it,  for  It  bleaches  itself,  and  perhaps 
the  Golden  Self-blanching  is  about  as  near  perfection 
as  we  have  yet  come.  It  requires  no  banking  ex- 
cept placing  boards  on  each  side.     If  you  have  pa- 


ABOUT  MAKING  GARDENS  93 

tience  and  will  give  special  care,  try  a  few  cauli- 
flower plants,  either  the  Early  Alabaster  or  the  Pearl 
of  Denmark.  I  like  this  delicious  vegetable  when 
it  is  well  cooked,  but,  alas  I  it  is  easily  spoiled. 

As  for  lettuce  it  is  impossible  to  get  it  worth  the 
plucking  unless  you  can  give  it  an  exceedingly  rich  bit 
of  ground.  Try  a  place  where  you  have  had  a  com- 
post pile  until  the  ground  is  saturated  with  food. 
Fork  this  up  very  finely  and  sow  Mignonette  and 
Golden  Queen.  Mignonette  will  give  you,  very 
speedily,  small  heads,  about  as  big  as  your  fist,  and 
delicious. 

If  there  is  room,  make  right  here  by  the  lettuce 
a  small  bed  for  beets,  carrots,  turnips,  and  salsify. 
Remember  that  this  is  the  place  where  you  must  get 
down  and  pull  weeds,  as  well  as  stand  up  and  hoe 
them.  The  richer  the  bed  the  smaller  it  may  be, 
for  you  will  get  just  as  much  from  ten  feet  square 
in  rich  deep  soil  as  you  will  from  three  times  that 
space  of  hard  soil. 

I  give  tomatoes  precedence  and  am  willing  to 
spend  more  time  and  trouble  with  them  than  with 
most  other  vegetables.  They  are  started  in  a  cold 
frame  or  hot  bed,  and  no  plants  are  ever  set  in  the 
garden  that  are  not  as  thick  through  as  your  finger. 
Thin  them  in  the  hot  bed  until  they  are  very  stout; 
then  take  them  up  with  a  liberal  supply  of  dirt,  set 
them  out  six  feet  apart,  crowd  down  the  dirt  around 
them,  mulch  them  thoroughly,  and  my  word  for  it 
you  will  have  to  tie  them  to  stakes  inside  of  a  month 


94     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

and  the  loads  of  fruit  will  keep  you  In  high  spirits. 
The  two  best  varieties  are  Golden  Queen  and  Liv- 
ingston's Stone,  although  there  are  several  of  the 
reds  of  about  equal  quality.  The  Jack  Rose  and 
Earliana  are  notable  for  being  very  early  and  at  the 
same  time  solid  and  of  good  quality. 

Melons  are  halfway  between  vegetables  and  fruit, 
and  there  are  so  many  thoroughly  superb  sorts  that 
I  can  only  give  you  a  bit  of  my  own  experience.  On 
my  Northern  home  I  have  succeeded  with  Jenny  Lind 
and  the  Emerald  Gem  among  muskmelons,  but  with 
watermelons  I  have  had  no  success  whatever  in  this 
climate,  with  the  single  exception  of  a  yellow-fleshed 
sort,  the  seed  of  which  came  to  me  from  Italy.  In 
Florida  the  Florida  Favorite  and  the  Dixie  are  two  of 
the  more  popular  sorts,  but  the  Triumph  is  a  new  sort 
that  meets  with  great  and  deserved  favor.  Probably 
Kleckley  Sweets,  Paul's  Bonny,  and  the  Bradford  are 
about  even  rivals  and  all  worth  testing.  The  Rocky 
Ford  muskmelon  is  nothing  more  than  the  old  Gem 
grown  under  favorable  conditions. 

Now  we  have  the  sweet  corn  and  the  peas  still  to 
provide  for.  I  grow  no  corn  except  hybrids  of  my 
own  creating,  crosses  of  the  Black  Mexican  with 
the  Minnesota,  recrossed  into  Henderson,  with  the 
blood  of  the  Golden  Nugget  intermixed.  It  is  In- 
comparably sweeter  than  any  that  I  have  been  able 
to  purchase.  The  two  best  peas  that  I  grew  dur- 
ing the  last  year  were  Senator  and  Carter's  Danby 
Stratagem. 


ABOUT  MAKING  GARDENS  95 

My  ideal  is  always  a  plant  that  does  not  grow 
more  than  two  or  two  and  a  half  feet  high,  yielding 
heavily  and  of  the  finest  flavor.  For  a  long  while 
I  found  nothing  better  than  May  Queen  and  A  No. 
I.  Dainty  Duchess  is  the  newest  claim  to  favor,  and 
I  know  enough  about  it  to  give  it  special  room  In  my 
next  garden  and  highly  recommend  It.  Onions  and 
a  few  other  vegetables,  I  have  already  told  you  I 
leave  entirely  to  the  market  gardener,  of  whom  I 
can  purchase. 

I  have  named  enough  to  set  you  at  work,  and  I 
can  see  you  getting  up  very  early  In  the  morning 
all  through  the  summer  months  to  take  a  look  at  your 
growing  things.  I  can  see  also  the  pride  with  which 
you  carry  In  your  first  tomatoes  or  a  bunch  of  golden 
carrots.  Your  rhubarb  will  make  earliest  spring  joy- 
ous, and  your  string  beans,  following  my  directions, 
will  not  be  all  picked  before  November.  You  recall 
what  the  Emperor  Diocletian  said  when  asked  to 
resume  his  crown,  "  Come  and  see  my  cabbages." 

By  the  way,  I  do  not  think  that  I  have  said  enough 
about  beans,  but  I  have  told  you  how  they  enrich 
the  soil  Instead  of  Impoverishing  It.  I  advise  you 
to  grow  them  liberally  and  only  of  the  best.  My 
crossbreeds  are  my  pride.  The  best  of  them  will  some 
day  be  placed  on  the  market.  I  have  reduced  the 
selected  sorts  to  five  well-established  kings  of  the 
legume  kingdom.  My  advice  Is  that  you  use  much 
of  your  enthusiasm  in  starting  new  sorts  yourself. 
There  Is  nothing  quite  so  noble  as  making  this  world 


96     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

richer  by  embodying  your  hopes  and  thoughts  in 
improved  foods  for  the  human  race. 

You  have  heard  a  good  deal  about  Mr.  Burbank, 
and  perhaps  you  have  seen  some  of  his  creations. 
If  he  had  given  us  only  the  Burbank  potato  that 
would  have  been  enough,  but  he  is  giving  us  new 
vegetables  and  new  fruits,  so  many  that  we  might 
almost  have  a  Burbank  garden  and  a  Burbank  or- 
chard. Others  are  doing  quite  as  excellent  work, 
and  the  time  is  coming  when  any  decent  farmer  will 
be  ashamed  to  die  without  leaving  behind  him  some 
new  product  of  his  brains  and  skill. 

Mr.  T.  V.  Munson,  of  Denlson,  Texas,  has  given 
the  world  a  list  of  at  least  fifty  new  sorts  of  grapes 
that  embody  the  finest  possibilities  of  all  our  native 
wildings  and  the  best  foreign  sorts.  The  Rev.  Mr. 
Loomis,  of  Japan,  has  added  to  his  missionary  work 
the  exploitation  of  the  Japanese  persimmon  in  the 
United  States.  I  recently  heard  a  minister,  seventy- 
five  years  old,  say,  "  Well,  I  have  not  lived  in  vain, 
for  I  have  given  the  world  the  best  sweet  corn  yet 
produced."  His  garden  work  seemed  surer  of  being 
a  benison  than  his  pulpit  work. 

Now  you  will  say  I  have  not  provided  for  a 
special  flower  garden,  although  I  have  suggested  a 
big  array  of  the  beautiful.  I  am  going  to  tell  you 
how  in  a  small  country  home  to  cultivate  some  of 
the  choicest  flowers  with  the  least  possible  trouble. 
Last  spring  I  had  three  thousand  tulips  blossoming 


ABOUT  MAKING  GARDENS  97 

on  my  nine  acres,  but  not  one  tulip  bed.  1  simply 
thrust  my  tulip  bulbs  down  through  into  the  soil 
of  my  strawberry  beds,  between  the  plants.  They 
come  up  and  blossom  as  if  they  owned  the  soil,  but 
the  flowers  are  gone  and  the  stalks  are  dried  before 
the  strawberries  have  got  out  of  bloom.  When  we 
are  picking  our  berries  there  is  nothing  to  show  that 
six  weeks  earlier  this  was  a  tulip  garden. 

Lilies  can  be  grown  much  In  the  same  way,  but 
the  best  I  have  seen  were  blossoming  in  the  vine- 
yard right  along  through  the  grape  rows.  The 
easiest  sorts  for  common  country  folk  to  grow  are 
the  tall  White  Candidum,  a  magnificent  lily  for 
July,  and  the  Japan  Lancifoliums  for  August.  The 
Auratum,  or  Gold-banded,  will  do  equally  well,  If 
planted  nine  inches  deep  Instead  of  five.  Our  field 
lilies  also  do  admirably  under  similar  conditions. 

Nasturtiums  ask  only  for  a  hard,  barren  bank. 
You  simply  must  not  feed  them,  but  you  may  give 
all  the  food  you  can  to  the  pansies  that  grow  just 
beside  them.  Now  beyond  these  flowers  make  a 
specialty  of  daffodils  and  Iris  In  the  spring,  almost 
anywhere  that  you  can  press  them  down  along  by  the 
hedges  or  the  grape  rows.  Phloxes  alone  remain 
as  my  hobby,  and  I  will  find  room  for  this  superb 
flower,  because  It  Is  so  profuse  In  bearing,  and,  If  you 
please,  you  may  cut  It  down  for  fall  blooming.  If 
you  secure  a  few  of  the  choicer  sorts  you  will  have 
no  difiiculty  in  raising  seedlings  that  are  improved 


98     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

on  what  you  have  set.  Select  your  best  seedlings, 
and  in  time  you  will  have  a  collection  worth  the 
while. 

Otherwise  among  the  flowers  let  your  wife  and 
children,  as  I  have  already  said,  run  their  hobbies. 
I  am  pretty  sure  that  you  will  find  plenty  of  sweet 
peas  and  China  asters  somewhere  about. 

As  for  roses  you  can  do  as  you  please;  you  can 
either  grow  them  in  your  shrubbery,  or  you  can  have 
a  special  rose  garden.  Only  enough  roses  we  will 
have;  it  is  not  home  without  them.  Here  is  a  little 
list  to  start  you.  I  do  not  believe  that  you  can  do 
much  better  at  the  outset  than  to  plant  what  are 
called  the  five  Cochets.  These  include  yellow,  pink, 
white,  red,  and  crimson  and  are  entirely  hardy.  If 
one  had  nothing  else  but  this  group,  he  would  be  well 
supplied  with  roses  all  through  the  blooming  sea- 
son. 

If  you  wish  to  select  a  few  of  the  very  best  iron- 
clads, out  of  what  is  called  the  hybrid  perpetual  class, 
take  General  Jacqueminot,  Paul  Neyron,  Gloire  Ly- 
onaise,  Prince  Camille  de  Rohan.  White  American 
Beauty,  or  as  it  is  sometimes  called  Frau  Karl 
Druschki,  is  one  of  the  most  magnificent  of  our  newer 
sorts.  With  this  plant  Betty  and  KlUarney  and  J.  B. 
Clark,  a  huge  rose  of  fine  quality.  Of  the  hybrid 
teas  I  should  select  Joseph  Hill,  Souvenir  de  Woot- 
ton,  Olivia,  and  Franz  Deegan.  All  the  roses  in 
this  class  are  pretty  close  to  hardy.  It  might  be 
well  to  hill  them  up  a  little  during  the  winter.     Vir- 


ABOUT  MAKING  GARDENS  99 

gjnia  Coxe  is  one  of  the  sweetest  and  most  beautiful 
of  the  crimson  roses. 

Of  the  older  roses  my  favorites  have  been  Gloire 
de  Margottin,  Her  Majesty,  Margaret  Dickson, 
Paul  Neyron,  Ulrich  Brunner,  and  Clio.  If  your 
home  is  below  New  York  City  you  can  add  largely 
to  the  list  of  tea  roses;  and  if  you  have  a  home  in 
Florida  you  may  plant  about  everything  that  you 
can  find  in  the  catalogues  and  pick  your  arms  full 
all  winter. 

Perhaps  I  ought  to  add  to  the  list  of  very  hardy 
roses.  Captain  Christy,  Giant  of  Battles,  Jubilee,  and 
Jules  Margottin.  It  frets  me  that  I  cannot  add  more 
to  this  list,  all  the  while  I  am  conscious  that  It  is 
unwise.  One  of  the  oldest  rose  growers  In  the  United 
States  announced  last  year  that  his  name  would  be 
borne  by  a  new  rose,  which  he  considers  the  finest 
ever  Introduced  —  that  is  "  Charles  Dingee."  Look 
out  for  this. 

Of  course  we  are  not  to  overlook  our  berries,  al- 
though they  have  been  In  the  garden  but  a  very  short 
time.  When  I  was  a  boy  we  never  thought  of  grow- 
ing a  garden  blackberry,  or  raspberry,  or  strawberry. 
When  we  wished  for  berries  we  went  Into  the  forest 
clearings,  and  for  strawberries  Into  the  pastures  and 
meadows.  Now  we  have  varieties  that  take  to  cul- 
ture, and  most  of  them  will  do  nothing  out  of  cul- 
tivation, ■> 

Of  raspberries  and  blackberries,  mulberries  and 
huckleberries  I  shall  talk  In  a  chapter  on  Orchards, 


loo    HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

because  nowadays  we  grow  these  berries  along  with 
our  plum  trees  and  pear  trees.  The  strawberry 
only  requires  a  place  under  the  head  of  gardening. 
And  gardening  it  is,  for  of  all  the  plants  that  we 
grow,  not  one  requires  more  care  and  work  to  get 
good  results  than  the  strawberry.  The  soil  must  be 
friable  or  mellow,  thoroughly  cultivated  and  clean, 
and  easily  irrigated.  When  the  plants  are  growing 
they  must  be  fed  well,  and  you  have  to  move  your 
beds  about  every  two  or  three  years.  In  spite  of 
all  this  a  small  strawberry  bed  is  an  absolute  essen- 
tial to  a  happy  country  home. 

I  think  I  have  planted  nearly  all  the  new  sorts 
of  these  berries  that  have  come  out,  all  the  way  back 
to  Wilson's  Albany,  still  sold  as  the  Wilson.  Some 
of  these  were  superb  berries,  and  one  of  them,  the 
Cumberland  Triumph,  still  creeps  around  in  my  or- 
chard. The  Sharpless  appeared  about  1880,  and  it 
was  the  first  revelation  of  bigness  and  goodness  com- 
bined —  a  literal  mouthful,  and  destined  to  be  the 
parent  of  a  wonderful  progeny. 

From  that  day  we  have  had  a  succession  of  start- 
ling strawberries,  each  new  one  always  seeming  to 
reach  the  very  climax  of  evolution.  We  could  have 
got  on  very  nicely  if  nothing  better  had  turned  up 
than  Jucunda  and  Green  Prolific.  But  human  am- 
bition was  aroused,  and  horticulturists  had  discovered 
what  they  could  do.  I  think  not  less  than  one  hun- 
dred kinds  of  strawberries  followed  in  rapid  suc- 
cession, each  one  displacing  the  other,  until  at  last 


ABOUT  MAKING  GARDENS         loi 

we   seemed   about   to   settle   down    permanently   on 
Brandywine. 

In  my  judgment,  at  present,  the  best  all-around 
strawberry  is  William  Belt,  although  it  has  two  or 
three  close  rivals  in  Cardinal,  Glen  Mary,  and  some 
of  Thompson's  seedlings.  It  is  not  quite  a  new 
berry,  but  has  stood  a  thorough  test  for  fully  ten 
years,  everywhere  and  under  all  conditions,  and  has 
proved  able  to  give  big  crops  of  delicious  fruit. 
Sample  is  another  good  and  reliable  sort  for  general 
culture,  and  so  is  Chesapeake,  and  for  a  just-right 
year  Haverland  Is  a  wonder  —  only  It  is  not  good 
for  a  very  dry  or  a  very  wet  year.  It  lays  whole 
handfuls  of  strawberries  down  on  the  ground,  so 
many  and  so  big  that  the  stems  cannot  hold  them  up ; 
mulch  underneath  Is  needed. 

If  you  will  give  it  hill  culture  and  very  rich  soil, 
Marshall  will  astonish  you  for  size,  and  its  quality  is 
rarely  equaled.  In  Florida  I  found  Lady  Thomp- 
son to  be  a  deserved  favorite,  but  still  better  was 
the  old  Bubach  No.  5  —  a  really  reliable  berry  that 
has  been  tested  for  twenty  years.  William  Belt, 
however,  will  stand  neglect  or  even  abuse,  and  still 
give  lots  of  big,  rich  berries,  as  If  it  really  enjoyed 
your  amazement  when  you  walk  along  the  rows  or 
lift  the  leaves.  It  will  fight  its  way  with  weeds  and 
grass,  and  still  give  a  crop.  This  is  my  choice,  ex- 
cept possibly  one  or  two  of  my  own  seedlings. 

However,  do  not  think  that  laziness  and  straw- 
berries can  ever  harmonize.     Keep  the  dirt  stirred 


I02     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

until  picking  time  comes;  have  plenty  of  mulch  be- 
tween the  rows,  and,  finally,  as  cold  weather  comes, 
cover  your  beds  lightly  with  compost  —  not  too 
heavily,  for  there  is  danger  of  rotting  the  plants. 
I  always  allow  the  leaves  to  show  through  the  cov- 
ering. There  has  been  a  great  deal  of  talk  about 
the  sex  of  strawberry  plants  and  the  necessity  of 
securing  pollen  from  perfect  blooming  sorts  to  bring 
into  fruitage  those  which  lack  stamens.  There  is 
something  in  this,  of  course,  but  if  you  plant  two  or 
three  sorts  in  adjacent  rows  this  problem  is  solved. 
Marshall  and  William  Belt  can  take  care  of  them- 
selves alone.  A  new  sort  called  Norwood  has  just 
been  placed  on  the  market,  but  the  stories  about  it 
are  so  amazing  that  I  will  do  no  more  than  mention 
it  in  this  chapter.  It  seems  to  be  as  big  as  a  Red 
Astrachan  apple;  I  hope  not.  All  we  want  of  a 
strawberry  is  to  just  go  into  the  mouth,  or  at  least 
to  accommodate  itself  with  a  single  split  from  a  silver 
knife. 

What  we  have  to  say  about  spraying  will  come  in 
a  little  later,  in  another  chapter,  but  we  must  not 
omit  the  hot  bed.  The  hot  beds  and  cold  frames 
are  needed  all  the  time,  not  only  to  start  tomatoes 
and  cabbages  for  very  early  planting,  but  later  for 
pinks,  sweet  Williams,  and  anything  that  you  have 
in  the  way  of  biennials  and  perennials.  I  like  best 
beds  built  against  a  stone  wall,  if  you  have  one,  and 
I  would  make  the  walls  of  the  bed  itself  of  stone 
or  brick.     The  length  must  depend   entirely  upon 


ABOUT  MAKING  GARDENS         103 

how  much  space  you  need,  but  the  width  should  not 
be  over  three  to  four  feet. 

The  slope,  If  possible,  should  be  to  the  east  or 
south,  or  the  southwest;  best  of  all  to  the  southeast. 
A  wooden  frame  is  often  the  best  that  you  can 
do,  and  It  should  be  In  a  sheltered  nook,  behind  a 
hedge,  or  possibly  at  a  corner  of  the  barn.  The 
make-up  Is  simply  horse  manure  fermented  and  over 
this  a  layer  of  very  fine  rich  mold.  For  some  seeds 
I  prefer  pure  sand  and  for  others  leaf  mold.  You 
can  generally  find  about  what  you  want  around  the 
edge  of  the  barnyard. 

You  are  at  last  In  your  country  garden,  and  the 
puzzles  win  begin  to  propound  themselves,  while 
others  will  solve  themselves.  I  have  only  tried  to 
answer  a  few  of  your  questions,  although  you  are 
bubbling  over  with  more  Inquiries.  Do  not  be  fool- 
ish enough  to  write  them,  but  study  them  out  for 
yourself.  Remember  all  the  while  that  you  have 
no  moral  or  physical  right  to  exhaust  your  land. 
Find  out  how  to  make  soil  and  how  to  keep  It  rich. 
You  and  I  will  have  another  talk  on  this  subject  by 
and  by. 

There  is  almost  always  fertility  below  to  bring 
up  —  especially  in  sandy  land,  and  there  is  always 
a  wealth  of  plant  food  in  the  air  to  bring  down. 
The  sum  of  your  problem,  and  all  your  problems, 
is  how  to  get  at  the  nitrogen  which  you  own  over- 
head and  the  phosphates  or  potash  that  you  own 
down  below. 


I04     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

Roll  up  your  sleeves  and  at  it.  I  wish  you  may 
be  so  happy  that  you  will  understand  how  it  was 
that  the  Lord  God  planted  a  garden  eastward  in 
Eden. 


CHAPTER  V 

PLANNING  FOR  BEAUTY  IN  LAWNS  AND 
SHRUBBERY 

I  COME  now  to  a  most  delightful  part  of  my 
general  subject,  where  your  training  and  your 
creative  art  will  find  exercise  and  you  can  con- 
struct your  ideas  with  plants  and  trees  —  only  do  not 
make  too  much  of  your  freedom  in  the  way  of  ex- 
pressing preconceived  or  inherited  notions,  not  to  say 
whims  and  oddities.  Nature  must  still  be  your  very 
strict  adviser,  to  be  counseled  at  every  turn,  and  we 
shall  hope  not  to  see  a  lot  of  leveling  and  hacking 
down  of  beautifully  carved  knolls,  or  the  cutting 
away  of  trees  that  Nature  spent  two  or  three  hundred 
years  in  building.  Now,  if  ever,  we  must  have  com- 
mon sense,  or  we  shall  make  our  home  a  mere  com- 
posite of  badly  related  bits  and  strips  —  called  lawns. 
Let  Nature  alone,  and  she  will  plant  shrubberies 
almost  everywhere,  lots  of  them  and  the  finest  that 
ever  were  conceived.  She  will  cover  the  hillsides 
with  them,  and  there  will  be  others  down  by  the 
creeks  and  wherever  else  she  can  twist  a  brook  to  and 
fro  through  the  meadows.  She  sets  the  birds  and 
the  squirrels  to  bringing  seeds,  some  of  them  stolen 

105 


io6     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

from  our  gardens,  and  she  tells  them  where  to  plant 
them. 

This  is  good  for  the  birds  for  it  will  give  them 
their  future  food,  and  to  us  it  gives  butternut  groves 
and  maple  groves  for  nuts  and  for  sugar,  besides 
acres  of  poems,  rhododendrons,  and  lawns  of  mint 
and  forget-me-not.  A  few  of  her  shrubs  are  pro- 
vided with  roots  that  run  under  other  roots  and  so 
get  hold  of  the  ground  in  spite  of  rivals.  In  this 
way  we  find  great  patches  of  sumac  along  the  hill- 
sides and  big  patches  of  elders  in  the  hollows. 

She  plants  her  forests  in  the  same  way,  her  great 
hemlock  woods  and  her  beech  groves  —  but  always 
with  shrubberies  fronting  them.  I  cannot  forget  the 
deep  glen,  visited  in  my  boyhood  with  only  my  dog 
for  a  companion,  where  a  projecting  promontory  of 
blue  and  red  shale  was  grasped  and  held  together 
with  long  naked  roots  of  a  single  huge  hemlock. 
These  roots  grasped  every  bit  of  dirt,  feeding  and 
trailing  until  they  reached  the  brook  below.  I 
dragged  rails  and  fenced  in  the  whole  glen,  and  to- 
day when  I  visit  that  glen  I  sit  under  the  huge  trees 
that  look  over  the  precipice  and  listen  to  the  brook 
song  among  the  wild  raspberries  far  below. 

Witch-hazels  have  found  soil  enough  for  their 
rootSj  and  wild  strawberries  creep  up  and  down. 
Everywhere  there  is  a  shrubbery  of  all  sorts  of  wild 
things,  out  of  which  have  risen,  by  competition,  tall 
lindens,  straight  as  arrows.  Some  one  has  removed 
the  rails  and  with  sharp  tools  cut  away  at  the  glen 


LAWNS  AND  SHRUBBERY  107 

openings,  leaving  only  a  few  apple  trees,  grafted  to 
Pound  Sweets  and  Northern  Spys. 

There  never  were  finer  shrubberies  than  those  that 
were  planted  in  the  corners  of  the  old  zigzag  rail 
fences,  where  the  wild  sloes  shook  hands  with  the 
hopple  bushes  and  the  great  white-flowering  elder 
or  golden-rods  nestled  close  to  wild  asters,  with 
borders  of  tansy  and  boneset.  In  June  the  wild 
strawberries  widened  this  border  and  hid  their  big 
clusters  under  burdock  and  mullein  leaves  —  like  lit- 
tle wild  rabbits.  In  the  West  I  used  to  envy  the 
great  wide-winged  wild  thorns,  covered  with  grapes 
and  making  cool  arbors  ever)rwhere  in  the  middle  of 
oak  forests.  In  Massachusetts  you  have  seen  what 
Nature  can  do  on  the  Berkshire  Hills  and  in  the 
Greenfield  valleys,  while  the  dwarfed  white  pines  of 
New  Hampshire  seem  to  me  to  be  the  most  beautiful 
things  in  the  world. 

Nature  loves  this  way  of  doing  beautiful  things 
everywhere.  She  sends  her  robins  over  into  our 
costly  gardens,  collecting  seeds  of  rare  shrubs  and 
sowing  them  until  they  become  naturalized.  So  I 
find  among  the  hills  that  border  my  Oriskany  Val- 
ley, rare  viburnums,  cratsegus,  and  lilacs,  with  not 
a  few  Tartarian  honeysuckles  and  other  shrubs  from 
Siberia  and  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope.  I  enlarge  a 
little  on  this  only  to  tell  you  that  we  have  never 
learned  to  do  this  business  any  better  than  Nature, 
or  to  make  shrubberies  finer  than  we  can  find  in  the 
wild. 


io8     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

Walking  through  Senator  Root's  famous  forest 
plantations,  of  which  the  country  has  heard  a  good 
deal  lately,  I  found  the  ground  dotted  everywhere 
with  miniature  maples  and  elms  and  white  ash  and 
butternuts,  and  not  a  few  delicate  young  hemlocks 
—  that  most  exquisite  of  all  evergreens.  Along 
the  lee  of  his  older  woods  there  were  thousands  of 
small  beeches,  inviting  the  planter  to  use  them. 
Nature  could  have  done  all  the  forest  planting  that 
was  necessary,  and  would  have  done  it  far  better 
than  even  Mr.  Pinchot  himself,  if  left  alone. 

I  advise  you.  If  you  want  anything  of  the  kind,  to 
shut  out  the  cattle  and  see  what  Nature  will  accom- 
plish. She  knows  what  the  soil  wants,  and  then  she 
knows  what  the  shrubs  and  trees  want.  She  makes 
no  mistakes  in  the  way  of  trying  to  grow  chestnuts 
where  there  should  be  maples,  or  pines  where  there 
should  be  only  deciduous  tress.  Her  forests  and 
shrubberies  are  wonderfully  correlated,  and  In  in- 
finite variety. 

But  now  let  us  turn  to  our  own  shrubbery  plant- 
ing, making  sure  that  we  do  not  foolishly  undertake 
the  conventional.  You  already  have  a  general  plan 
of  your  place,  and  your  house  Is  built  into  the  plan. 
You  did  not  shape  the  grounds  to  your  house,  but 
your  house  to  the  grounds.  In  this  process  you  have 
had  suggested  to  you,  I  do  not  doubt,  places  where 
you  would  like  to  plant  a  shrubbery,  or  a  tree  lawn, 
or  a  flower  lawn,  or  a  grass  lawn. 

How  far  we  can  follow  our  first  Impulses  we  shall 


LAWNS  AND  SHRUBBERY  109 

find  out  a  little  later.  But  one  or  two  things  must 
be  set  down  as  axioms,  and  the  first  of  these  is,  do 
not  try  to  exploit  your  place  for  the  eye  of  the 
public  —  that  is,  do  not  plant  for  those  people  to 
look  at  who  happen  to  be  driving  by.  I  do  not 
question  our  duty  to  make  our  places  agreeable  to 
travelers,  but  at  the  same  time  we  have  our  own 
private  needs  and  rights. 

If  you  are  a  person  of  wealth,  the  shrubbery  is 
your  chance  for  gracious  enjoyment  and  retreat,  and 
If  you  are  not  wealthy,  nevertheless  a  shrubbery  is 
the  best  method  you  have  of  resting  yourself  In  quiet, 
while  enjoying  a  full  display  of  flowers.  No  other 
plants  and  no  other  sort  of  garden  will  give  you 
anything  like  as  much  of  an  array  of  the  beautiful  as 
the  shrubbery  —  and  at  the  same  cost  of  money 
and  labor.  Through  April,  May,  and  early  June  the 
shrubbery  is  the  one  gorgeous  expression  of  spring 
joy,  and  with  discretion  you  may  so  arrange  your 
planting  that  there  shall  be  a  plenty  of  blossoming 
varieties  In  the  later  months;  but  always,  and  at  all 
times,  keep  in  mind  that  the  shrubbery  Is  particu- 
larly your  private  property. 

For  this  reason  I  would  not  place  a  collection  of 
shrubs  directly  In  front  of  my  house,  between  my 
house  and  the  street.  Let  It  be  where  the  morning 
sun  strikes  It  and  where  the  moon  also  lights  It  up  for 
the  honeysuckles  that  only  send  out  their  sweetness  at 
night  and  woo  the  moths  Instead  of  the  butterflies. 
Grouping  Is  all  right  for  some  things,  but  the  gen- 


no     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

eral  rule  should  be  to  allow  the  larger  grownig  sorts 
to  occupy  the  prominent  places,  and  then  associate 
the  smaller  growing  with  those  already  planted,  al- 
ways avoiding  crowding. 

The  present  fashion  likes  to  affiliate  great  numbers 
of  spireas,  deutzias,  and  similar  floriferous  shrubs  in 
close  masses.  During  the  blossoming  season  this  pro- 
vides a  large  show,  and  when  the  leaves  are  colored 
crimson  in  the  autumn  the  display  is  attractive. 

For  my  part  I  love  the  shrub  itself.  I  like  to 
see  what  the  bush  itself  stands  for,  and  in  all  cases 
you  will  find  that  Nature  means  something  very  par- 
ticular and  special  by  her  forms  of  growth.  Jam- 
ming plants  together  and  intertwining  their  limbs 
gives  you  no  chance  for  comprehending  the  indi- 
vidual plant  and  the  peculiarity  of  foliage,  or  of 
growth.  The  fashion  also  is  fit  only  for  public  dis- 
plays, and  you  will  find  that  shrubberies  planted  after 
this  manner  are  generally  thrust  out  before  all  the 
people  to  look  at. 

What  we  are  planning  Is  rather  a  cozy  and  sweet- 
smelling  retreat,  where  we  can  go  with  Nature  alone, 
or  at  most  with  a  very  choice  friend.  There  should 
be  seats  In  this  shrubbery  of  ours,  but  not  conspicuous. 
They  should  be  brown  or  green,  Nature's  colors,  and 
they  should  be  half  hidden  under  the  bushes. 

Your  collection  should  be  made  largely  from  your 
own  native  woods,  for  you  will  find  in  every  section 
of  the  country  quite  a  number  of  sorts  of  shrubs,  of 
real  beauty  and  quality,  but  rarely  transferred  to 


LAWNS  AND  SHRUBBERY  iii 

our  homesteads.  Scattered  about  the  woods  In  cen- 
tral New  York,  I  think  I  could  find  at  least  fifty 
charming  and  very  companionable  plants.  The 
sumac  is  certainly  not  to  be  despised,  and  in  some 
of  its  forms  it  can  be  found  in  a  dozen  States. 

Horatio  Seymour,  the  mate  of  Thomas  Jefferson, 
among  our  statesmen  as  a  Nature  lover,  called  the 
common  elder  the  most  beautiful  of  all  American 
shrubs.  It  certainly  is  something  remarkable,  both 
in  blossom  and  in  fruitage.  I  like  to  let  it  run  at 
freedom  because  I  love  the  berries  in  tarts  as  well 
as  I  admire  them  on  the  bushes. 

The  hazel  and  witch-hopple  are  marvelously  in- 
teresting shrubs  and  can  be  found  all  about  the 
Northern  woods.  The  witch  hazel  is  the  only  shrub 
that  blossoms  in  November  and  It  can  easily  be  added 
to  our  list.  Add  now  the  magnificent  laurels  and 
rhododendrons,  if  you  live  where  the  limestone  does 
not  forbid;  while  the  evergreen  mahonia  will  give 
you  golden  balls  of  bloom,  if  you  will  give  It  in  re- 
turn a  place  where  the  winter's  sun  cannot  disturb 
It.  It  will  add  largely  to  your  pleasure,  however, 
if  I  leave  you  to  make  a  thorough  search  of  the 
woods  and  forest  edges  and  glens  of  your  neighbor- 
hood to  determine  for  yourself  what  may  be  hidden 
away  that  deserves  to  be  brought  from  Its  retreat. 

Collecting  for  a  shrubbery  a  few  years  ago,  I  came 
upon  a  weeping  form  of  wild  cherry,  more  beautiful 
than  any  other  wild  cherry  that  I  had  ever  seen. 
I  had  as  good  fortune  with  a  cornus  alternifolia. 


112     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

If  you  do  not  find  that  some  of  the  seedlings  caused 
by  bird  planting  are  novel,  just  as  some  of  the  black- 
berries and  raspberries  that  are  bird  sown  are  worth 
the  transplanting  into  your  garden,  then  I  shall  be 
mistaken.  Keep  your  eyes  always  wide  open  for 
new  things. 

In  this  hunt  of  yours  you  will  also  find  something 
else  of  very  great  interest,  and  that  is  that  many 
foreign  shrubs  have  become  scattered  by  birds  eat- 
ing the  fruit  in  gardens  and  voiding  the  seeds  in  wild 
places.  In  this  way  I  have  quite  frequently  come 
upon  Tartarian  honeysuckles,  Siberian  maples,  Eng- 
lish barberries,  rare  thorns,  European  euonymus, 
with  viburnums  and  lilacs,  and  I  do  not  doubt  that 
there  are  many  others  nestled  in  the  glens  which  I 
haunt  and  waiting  for  sharper  eyes  than  mine. 

The  shrubbery  bursts  into  bloom  with  the  first 
tempting  rays  of  spring  sunshine.  First  comes  the 
little  daphne,  and  if  you  care,  you  may  cut  great 
bunches  of  this  shrub,  to  open  a  few  days  earlier  in- 
doors in  water.  The  forsythias  almost  as  soon  be- 
come great  masses  of  gold,  floriferous  beyond  com- 
pare. The  Judas  trees  may  be  classed  as  shrubs, 
and  as  such  will  stand  well  at  the  front  of  all  things 
that  blossom.  Before  a  leaf  appears  every  limb  and 
twig  is  a  bouquet  of  lilac.  I  wonder  that  more  has 
not  been  made  of  this  grand  American  small  tree  or 
bush. 

Then  come  the  Japan  quinces  and  the  lilacs,  and 
the   procession   is   well   begun.     You   always   regret 


LAWNS  AND  SHRUBBERY  113 

that  each  one  does  not  hist  longer  In  bloom,  yet  you 
observe  that  Nature's  arrangement  is  after  all  the 
best.  She  gives  you  just  one  or  two  very  fine  things 
at  a  time,  to  occupy  your  full  attention. 

For  midsummer  and  early  autumn  we  are  ex- 
pected to  turn  to  the  rose  garden  and  the  fruit  gar- 
dens, yet  we  have  a  few  shrubs,  such  as  the  altheas 
and  the  hydrangeas,  that  do  not  display  their  beauty 
until  August  —  although  the  noblest  of  all  the  hy- 
drangeas (a  new  find  and  baptized  Arborescens  grand. 
iflora)  begins  to  blossom  in  June  and  continues  until 
October  —  a  magnificent  shrub  and  finer  even  than 
the  now  famous  paniculata.  At  this  time  also  quite 
a  number  of  the  May-blooming  shrubs  are  gay  with 
scarlet  or  purple  berries. 

A  little  later,  and  just  in  time  for  Thanksgiving, 
the  euonymus  breaks  open  Its  seed  pods  and  greets  us 
with  a  scarlet  display,  while  the  witch  hazel  begins 
Its  autumn  flowering.  You  cannot  have  too  many 
high-bush  cranberries,  not  only  to  attract  the  gros- 
beaks to  dine,  but  because  the  berries  make  a  dehci- 
ous  sauce,  very  like  the  true  cranberry.  For  myself 
I  like  a  bush  of  barberries,  not  only  before  my  win- 
dows, but  at  every  turn  of  my  drives,  warming  up 
the  landscape  with  brilliant  scarlet  when  the  snow 
is  covering  the  world  for  five  successive  months; 
these  berries  also  make  a  delightful  jelly. 

Do  not  forget  to  plant  a  few  fine-growing  shrubs 
around  your  barns  and  outhouses.  I  cannot  say 
positively  that  the  cows  enjoy  the  lilacs  and  the  mock- 


114     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

oranges  and  the  honeysuckles  that  send  their  perfume 
into  the  stables,  but  there  is  something  humanizing 
about  these  surroundings,  not  bad  at  all  for  the  hired 
men,  just  as  there  is  something  economic  in  having 
grapevines  that  carry  bushels  of  fine  clusters  on  your 
barn  walls.  I  hate  stables  and  outbuildings  that  are 
divorced  from  the  beautiful.  I  have  a  lingering  be- 
lief that  the  animals  are  happier  when  surrounded 
with  that  which  also  pleases  me. 

A  good  list  of  shrubs  for  you  to  study,  but  not 
strictly  to  follow,  would  be,  for  April,  daphne;  for 
May,  the  golden  forsythia  (not  quite  hardy),  Japan 
quinces  in  variety,  prunus  triloba,  spireas  in  variety, 
lilacs  in  variety,  viburnums  (including  the  old-fash- 
ioned snowball  —  only  preferring  the  Japanese 
sort),  and  Tartarian  honeysuckle;  for  June,  plant 
lilacs  in  variety  of  the  later  sorts,  deutzias  in  variety, 
syringas  in  great  variety,  peonies  in  variety,  vibur- 
nums of  a  later  sort,  clematis  for  climbing,  cornus 
alba  and  the  common  elder,  with  rhododendrons 
where  the  soil  will  permit;  and  for  July  and  August, 
besides  a  few  spireas  and  clematis  paniculata,  plant 
freely  of  altheas  and  hydrangeas. 

I  have  already  suggested  that  in  the  planting  of 
shrubs  we  avoid  the  conventional.  Never  plant 
them  in  rows,  unless  it  be  for  wind-breaks,  or  border- 
ing straight  drives.  Seek  variety  in  all  your  group- 
ing. Low-growing  shrubs  should  be  planted  in  front 
of  taller.  Grow  as  a  rule  in  the  sod,  of  course 
forking  annually  around  each  plant;  I  mean  by  this 


LAWNS  AND  SHRUBBERY  115 

that  formal  walks  should  be  avoided.  If  your  shrub- 
bery is  large  enough,  you  should  arrange  it  so  that 
you  may  lose  yourself  when  strolling  about  of  an 
evening  or  a  morning.  Your  noondays  should  be 
spent  under  the  shade  of  the  lawn  trees  or  in  the 
orchard. 

Shrubs  that  are  suitable  for  hedges  arc  rare,  be- 
cause most  of  them  are  liable  to  lean  over  too  far,  like 
most  of  the  spireas,  while  others  are  constantly  dying 
out  in  twigs  that  deface  the  hedge.  The  very  finest 
of  all  shrubs  for  this  purpose  is  the  Tartarian  or  bush 
honeysuckle,  but  I  have  mentioned  this  before.  This 
shrub  appears  with  red  flowers,  with  white,  and  with 
pink.  The  pink-flowering  is  a  little  more  sturdy  in 
growth  and  might  fairly  be  selected  for  a  hedge.  I 
have  secured  a  seedling  with  an  exceedingly  deep 
crimson  flower  and  sturdy  growth. 

Lilacs  are  defensible  for  this  purpose  of  hedging, 
but  they  will  die  out  In  twigs  and  branches,  giving 
us  great  annoyance.  I  have  seen  the  barberry  used 
as  a  hedge,  but  the  results  were  always  disappointing. 
Next  to  the  honeysuckle  I  would  place  the  hydrangea 
panlculata.  This  shrub  will  stand  considerable 
trimming,  but  It  must  have  good  soil  to  do  Its  best. 
Its  flowers  are  insignificant  if  the  plants  are  starved. 
I  think  the  new  hydrangea  arborescens  will  also  make 
a  fine  hedge  plant,  although  Its  growth  Is  more 
slender. 

I  could  give  a  whole  page  wisely  to  the  lilacs. 
Fifty  years  ago  we  had  only  the  common  lilac  and 


ii6     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

the  white,  and  the  latter  was  quite  rare.  It  will  not 
make  a  fine  bush  unless  given  a  moist  location.  The 
Persian  lilacs  came  Into  common  use  only  a  few  years 
ago,  but  they  have  added  immensely  to  the  charm  of 
our  shrubberies.  They  are  much  more  delicate  in 
foliage  and  in  flowers,  but  the  whole  bushes  become 
a  solid  mass  of  bloom  late  in  May.  The  French 
horticulturists  have  been  sending  us  recently  a  long 
list  of  superb  new  sorts,  single,  double,  and  semi- 
double. 

Princess  Alexandra,  a  white-flowered  sort;  Jean 
Bart,  a  double  carmine;  Leon  Simon,  a  double  with 
bluish  crimson  flowers;  Ludwig  Spaeth,  of  a  reddish 
purple  hue  and  Immensely  long  flower  stems;  Presi- 
dent Grevy,  a  beautiful  blue,  very  double,  and  with 
flowerets  of  the  largest  size;  and  Michael  Buchner, 
with  double  lilac-colored  flowers,  make  a  half  dozen 
of  the  finest  I  have  seen.  They  are  all  of  them  very 
hardy  and  give  very  little  trouble  on  the  lawns  If  they 
have  reasonably  good  soil.  They  will  not  stand 
being  starved,  however,  and,  as  they  are  all  grafted, 
you  must  look  out  not  to  let  the  suckers  have  a  chance 
to  grow. 

As  far  as  possible  I  am  using  the  homely  old  names 
for  the  shrubs  specified,  and  where  I  do  not  It  Is 
because  they  are  not  known  by  any  more  familiar  title 
than  that  given,  either  In  the  catalogues  or  In  com- 
mon parlance.  When  I  call  upon  you  I  shall  expect 
you  to  show  me  a  place  that  you  have  selected,  not 
too  formal,  but  just  out  of  the  line  of  your  daily 


LAWNS  AND  SHRUBBERY  117 

work,  near  the  croquet  ground,  or  possibly  the  tennis 
court;  and  I  expect  to  find  a  bird's  nest  in  every  bush. 
If  there  is  a  damp  spot  anywhere  about,  it  will  be 
filled  with  dogwood  and  surrounded  by  Judas  trees. 

Hazel  bushes  and  hopple  bushes  will  grow  in  the 
shade  of  one  or  two  wild  cherries,  wild  plums,  and 
mountain  ash.  If,  however,  you  cannot  spare  room 
enough  for  all  of  these  things,  just  have  a  good  group 
of  Persian  lilacs  for  me,  another  of  spireas,  and  an- 
other of  mock-oranges,  although  I  am  not  sure  that 
I  like  any  shrub  better  than  the  old  syringa,  with  a 
fragrance  that  floats  off  an  eighth  of  a  mile.  I  have 
not  said  half  enough  about  the  Judas  tree,  because  it 
is  the  finest  very  early  shrub  in  existence;  only  re- 
member that  its  wood  is  brittle  and  you  had  better 
grow  it  as  a  small  tree. 

You  will  be  sure  to  find  seedlings  from  most  of 
your  shrubs,  coming  up  year  after  year,  generally  to 
be  mowed  off  or  hoed  out.  Let  me  advise  you  to 
have  somewhere  along  by  your  berry  gardens  or 
plowed  fields  a  little  nursery  to  which  you  can  trans- 
plant these  children  of  Nature  and  see  what  they 
will  come  to.  Give  them  in  charge  to  one  of  your 
boys  or  girls,  with  the  understanding  that  he  will 
own  the  finer  ones.  In  this  way  you  will  bind  your 
children  to  country  life,  and  at  the  same  time  you 
will  be  sure  to  get  a  lot  of  very  fine  new  varieties  of 
shrubs. 

No  two  seedlings  will  come  just  alike.  I  am  very 
proud   of  my   cross-bred  mock-oranges   and  honey- 


ii8     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

suckles,  and  I  have  one  barberry  that  outglorlfies 
everything  In  the  catalogues.  This  business  of  cross- 
breeding is  very  simple  if  you  let  the  bees  do  the 
crossing,  and  you  only  do  the  selecting. 

Nature,  if  left  to  herself,  does  not  count  a  lawn 
into  her  contrivances.  A  lawn  implies  too  much  of 
the  artificial  for  her  somewhat  wild  notions  and  al- 
ways means  human  folk  about.  The  cow  path  and 
the  squirrel  track  she  takes  into  her  reckoning,  but 
no  straight  walks  and  no  driveways,  and  certainly 
no  sheared  evergreens  or  sheared  grass  plots. 

Lawns,  however,  we  must  have,  and  a  right  sort 
of  a  lawn  Is  Indicative  of  civilization.  If  you  have 
a  lawn  between  yourself  and  the  street,  at  all,  it 
should  be  made  up  of  trees,  In  a  grass  plot,  not 
sheared  every  day,  but  kept  tidy  and  mowed  three 
or  four  times  during  the  summer.  It  will  need  a 
lot  of  good  taste  to  create  a  lawn  of  this  sort,  and  I 
believe  that  nine  out  of  ten  make  robust  failures. 

Nothing  In  the  world  can  be  worse  than  a  collec- 
tion of  weeping  trees,  or  sheared  evergreens,  and  a 
lot  of  odd  or  peculiar  trees  —  forced  to  keep  com- 
panionship which  they  do  not  like.  There  are  some 
trees  that  have  the  fidgets  so  badly  under  these  circum- 
stances that  they  become  diseased.  On  the  other 
hand,  there  are  very  strong  friendships  among  trees. 
The  oak  and  the  pine  make  good  neighbors. 

The  white  elm  likes  to  be  alone  —  running  as 
high  up  Into  the  air  as  possible  and  then  letting  Its 
limbs  droop  gracefully  down,  to  get  as  much  more 


LAWNS  AND  SHRUBBERY  119 

air  and  sunshine  as  it  can.  It  spreads  over  the  larg- 
est possible  space  for  the  sun  to  kiss.  The  red  elm  is 
quite  another  thing  and  has  never  lost  its  woodland 
ways.  It  loses  its  lower  limbs,  but  has  never  learned 
how  to  run  up  aloft  and  spread  out  a  canopy,  like  the 
white  elm. 

While  planting  the  Kentucky  coffee  tree,  one  must 
know  that  the  female  grows  almost  as  erect  as  a 
Lombardy  poplar,  while  the  male  tree  spreads  out 
through  a  surface  of  thirty  feet  In  diameter.  It 
needs  a  good  deal  of  this  preliminary  knowledge 
of  trees  to  avoid  serious  blunders.  While  the  maple 
is  always  charming  for  shade,  you  must  know  this 
one  thing,  that  if  trimmed  up  after  it  has  attained 
size,  the  sun  striking  the  bark  will  surely  split  It. 
Then  will  set  in  the  worms  and  death. 

The  scarlet  maple  is  peculiarly  beautiful,  and  bet- 
ter yet  is  that  variety  of  the  scarlet  which  we  call 
swamp  maple.  I  advise  you  to  go  Into  a  marshy 
place  In  the  fall  and  note  the  wonderful  variety  of 
coloring  among  the  maples;  then  mark  two  or  three 
of  the  more  beautiful  for  transplanting. 

There  are,  however,  three  trees,  yes,  four,  that  I 
place  ahead  of  all  others  for  single  lawn  trees.  The 
first  of  these  Is  the  beech.  It  Is  rather  slow  growing 
and  needs  room.  One  tree  Is  quite  enough  for  a 
small  lawn,  much  better  than  a  crowd  of  elbowed 
affairs.  The  beech  naturally  heads  out  very  low, 
giving  you  just  room  under  the  limbs  for  a  rustic 
seat  and  a  bit  of  a  lawn  party. 


I20     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

Next  to  the  beech  comes  the  Norway  maple,  the 
very  ideal  of  rapid  growth,  glorious  foliage,  and 
rich  coloring  in  the  fall.  The  juice  of  this  tree  is 
milky  and  acrid,  preventing  the  attack  of  worms.  I 
do  not  remember  ever  seeing  a  Norway  maple  in  the 
slightest  degree  defoliated. 

Third  in  rank,  perhaps  it  ought  to  go  to  the  front, 
is  the  Catalpa  speciosa.  America  should  be  proud 
of  this  grand  native  production.  The  wood  is 
among  the  very  richest  possessions  of  our  country  for 
telegraph  poles  and  railroad  ties,  while  in  May  there 
is  not  a  woodland  or  lawn  tree  that  gives  us  a  more 
superb  array  of  blossoms. 

Mr.  E.  Y.  Teas,  now  an  old  man,  at  Centerville, 
Indiana,  some  years  ago  sent  us  out  hybrids  of  the 
native  catalpa  with  the  Japanese.  I  have  some  of 
these  growing  in  Florida  and  others  in  New  York 
State  —  equally  thrifty  and  beautiful.  The  color  of 
the  foliage  varies  from  a  rich  purple  to  a  golden 
green,  and  if  your  lawn  is  small  I  advise  you  to 
get  some  of  these  hybrid  catalpas.  Cut  off  the 
leaders,  and  the  trees  will  spread  widely  and  dip 
their  branches  full  of  flowers  clear  to  the  ground. 

My  fourth  tree  for  American  lawns  is  the  Amer- 
ican linden,  or  basswood.  It  is  hard  to  tell  why  this 
tree  has  been  so  much  neglected,  except  that  the 
wood  is  too  soft  for  fuel.  For  a  lawn  tree  it  has 
every  requisite,  spreading  out  grandly  and  just  far 
enough  from  the  ground,  while  in  June  it  is  one  mass 
of  deliciously  fragrant  flowers.     The  foliage  is  large 


LAWNS  AND  SHRUBBERY  121 

and  the  shade  perfect.  Better  yet,  it  is  the  great  bee 
tree  of  the  world, 

I  have  advocated  the  planting  of  basswood  along 
our  streets  and  everywhere  else  in  order  to  increase 
honey  production  and  the  wealth  of  the  people. 
This  linden  could  easily  displace  the  maple  —  as  the 
maple  is  commonly  grown  (a  haggard,  diseased, 
worm-eaten  affair,  giving  poor  shade  and  suggestive 
only  of  decay).  If  rightly  grown,  the  sugar  maple 
should  surely  have  its  place  with  the  four  that  I  have 
selected,  only  it  is  not  often  rightly  grown. 

I  am  sure  that  some  of  my  readers  will  call  me  to 
account  for  not  naming  the  white  elm,  and  really,  if 
conditions  are  just  right,  I  would  name  it  specifically 
and  in  the  front  rank.  It  is  a  wonderful  tree,  only 
remember  that  it  takes  a  long  while  to  make  a  really 
useful  lawn  tree  of  the  white  elm.  If  you  plant  it, 
be  sure  that  It  has  most  abundant  room  and  that  it 
stands  where  its  shade  will  not  be  needed  for  ten  or 
fifteen  years. 

The  white  ash  also  has  some  strong  claims  on  us, 
but  mainly  for  street  planting.  It  heals  over  wounds 
easily  and  will  remain  in  fine  condition  for  shade  for 
at  least  one  hundred  years.  If  you  plant  the  maple, 
let  it  be  trimmed  up  just  about  as  high  at  planting 
as  it  will  ever  need  to  be  when  full  grown.  I  have 
already  told  you  why  this  should  be  done.  The 
country  Is  full  of  maple  trees,  and  hardly  a  sound 
one  among  them. 

Plant  English  trees  for  late  autumn.     The  Eng- 


122     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

lish  oak,  the  Scotch  elm,  the  English  beech,  and  the 
European  linden  all  come  to  us  with  established 
habits  that  they  do  not  easily  yield.  They  hold  their 
leaves  in  autumn  for  two  or  three  weeks  longer  than 
American  trees  of  the  same  sort.  King  Charlie's 
oak  and  the  Scotch  elm  give  us  their  russet  leaves 
until  well  into  the  edge  of  winter  —  the  oak  some- 
times all  winter. 

In  Florida  I  find  that  the  water  oak  and  the  per- 
simmon and  the  black  jack  oak  are  to  be  reckoned 
with  for  midwinter  foliage.  The  persimmon  gives 
us  a  fine  show  of  mixed  scarlet  and  yellow,  while  the 
black  jack,  a  little  later  in  December,  is  gorgeous 
with  its  motley  hues.  This  sort  of  foliage  is  hardly 
disposed  of  before  the  sweet  gum  and  the  sugar  maple 
put  on  their  spring  foliage  and  their  crimson  blos- 
soms. 

So  it  is  that  everywhere  there  are  enough  of  fine 
things,  growing  where  no  man  can  turn  them  to 
rhythm  or  joy,  and  what  can  one  say  about  it  all  ex- 
cept that  Nature  does  not  like  the  ugly  and  that  the 
soul  of  all  things  is  beautiful.  Learn  to  look  around 
you,  and  you  will  find  material  everywhere  waiting 
for  a  place  on  your  lawn.  A  tree  lawn  needs  judg- 
ment, however,  or  you  will  gather  together  trees  that 
do  not  mate  well  and  will  soon  become  diseased. 

I  have  spoken  slightingly  of  weeping  trees  and  of 
sheared  trees.  I  do  not  mean  that  weeping  trees 
should  be  always  discarded,  but  to  plant  a  distorted 
affair  in  the  eyes  of  the  public,  simply  because  some 


LAWNS  AND  SHRUBBERY  123 

of  its  limbs  twist  down  instead  of  up,  is  a  mistake. 
There  is  one  elm,  however,  the  Camperdown,  which 
may  be  classed  as  an  exception.  Its  graceful  growth 
makes  it  form  a  very  acceptable  arbor. 

As  for  sheared  evergreens,  they  are  monstrosities 
and  nothing  else.  That  does  not  mean  that  an  ever- 
green tree  should  never  be  trimmed.  Rational  head- 
ing-in  will  thicken  the  tree,  and  will  not  distort  it. 

As  a  rule,  your  evergreens  should  sit  flat  on  the 
ground.  Nature  devised  them  In  the  earlier  periods 
of  the  world,  before  there  were  any  deciduous  or 
flowering  trees,  when  the  elements  were  ruder  and 
vegetation  must  have  the  very  best  defence  against 
storms.  The  natural  form  of  the  evergreen 
was  therefore  then,  and  still  Is,  a  perfect  cone,  and 
It  should  never  be  trimmed  up,  unless  the  reason  Is 
very  peculiar  and  apparent. 

The  word  lawn  probably  conveys  to  most  minds 
a  grassy  turf  —  a  yard  of  clean  grass.  Sometimes 
it  means  just  a  front  yard  over  which  the  lawn- 
mower  is  Incessantly  run  from  the  last  of  April  to 
the  last  of  October.  More  of  these  lawns  are  grass 
plots,  more  or  less  filled  up  with  miscellaneous  flower 
beds  and  shrubs.  This  mixture  Is  well  enough  to 
start  with,  but  If  your  homestead  grows  and  develops, 
the  flowers  should  have  a  place  for  themselves, 
while  the  shrubs  constitute  the  retreat  I  have  de- 
scribed. 

It  is  not  Impossible  to  combine  the  flowers  with 
the  vegetables  In  a  garden  by  themselves  and  so  leave 


124     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

out  of  the  lawn  question  all  flowers  except  the  shrubs. 
I  do  not  forget,  however,  that  around  the  kitchen 
door  the  country  home-maker  has  place  for  a  few 
pinks  and  annuals.  Remember  always  that  you  will 
spend  more  time  and  patience  planting  and  weeding 
a  few  balsams  and  asters  than  you  will  caring  for  a 
shrubbery  of  a  quarter  of  an  acre.  I  have  outgrown 
nearly  all  annuals  and  most  of  the  perennials,  and 
what  I  do  with  the  rest  I  have  told  you  already  in 
my  discussion  of  gardens. 

What  to  do  with  roses  is  also  a  problem.  Huge 
growers,  like  crimson  rambler,  can  have  a  place  in 
the  shrubbery,  and  it  is  not  Impossible  to  border  a 
shrubbery  with  groups  of  hardy  sorts  very  effectively. 
Roses,  however,  call  for  a  good  deal  of  labor,  watch- 
ing and  trimming  them  and  removing  the  old  buds, 
besides  the  need  of  spraying  and  otherwise  fighting 
insects.  I  am  content  to  plant  them  where  they  can 
be  cultivated  in  rows  by  horse  power,  as  a  rule.  In 
Florida  It  is  different,  for  our  rosebushes  get  to  be 
great  shrubs,  needing  no  winter  protection  and  al- 
most always  In  bloom.  There  we  can  let  them  stand 
eight  or  ten  feet  high  to  constitute  a  shrubbery  by 
themselves. 

Let  me  protest,  however,  against  the  waste  of  time 
and  the  lack  of  good  taste  that  would  create  for  a 
lawn  a  smooth  greensward,  out  of  which  is  picked 
every  day  any  little  dandelion  or  wandering  clover. 
It  requires  constant  running  of  a  lawn-mower  also 
—  a  rattling  affair  that  I  never  could  endure,  and  it 


LAWNS  AND  SHRUBBERY  125 

also  refuses  to  take  Into  account  the  beauty  of  a  grass 
spire  five  inches  long. 

I  want  you  to  learn  to  appreciate  the  grass.  It 
is  one  of  Nature's  chief  works.  She  tried  her  hand 
at  it  again  and  again,  as  she  did  at  making  trees,  and 
whether  it  be  stately  timothy,  or  graceful  bluegrass, 
or  daisy-crowded  orchard  grass,  or  the  bunch  grass 
that  grows  by  the  creeks,  or  the  great  waving  broom 
grass  of  swamp  lands,  grass  is  always  beautiful.  In- 
dian corn  is  only  a  superbly  developed  zea  grass.  I 
do  not  believe  that  putting  the  razor  to  the  face  of 
Nature  every  morning  is  any  improvement. 

In  the  fall  I  find  these  little  fancy  lawns  all  about 
the  country,  just  about  big  enough  for  a  city  door- 
yard,  and  men  and  women  raking  them  clean  of  all 
sweet-scented  brown  and  scarlet  leaves.  The  leaves 
are  burned  and  the  grass  is  left  to  be  frozen  to  the 
core,  so  that  reseeding  will  be  necessary  another 
spring.  I  differ  entirely  with  these  country  friends 
about  this  matter.  I  would  abolish  the  lawn-mower 
in  summer,  letting  the  grass  grow  at  least. five  or  six 
inches  high  before  cutting. 

I  would  have  it  mowed  with  an  old-fashioned 
scythe,  if  you  can  find  anybody  still  left  who  knows 
how  to  swing  it.  Any  boy  or  girl  of  commonsense 
and  decent  muscle  can  quickly  learn  the  old  art,  and 
my  word  for  It  they  will  be  glad.  I  question  the 
physical  value  to  a  boy  or  girl  of  pushing  a  lawn- 
mower  back  and  forth  by  the  hour,  while  as  an  in- 
tellectual operation  it  is  a  flat  failure. 


126     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

Climbing  the  hills  not  far  from  my  home,  I  saw 
my  friend  and  neighbor  swinging  the  scythe  in  the 
fence  corners. 

"  I  want  these  corners,"  he  said,  "  for  wild  grape- 
vines and  Virginia  creepers,  and  over  there  I  am 
keeping  it  free  for  sumac  to  be  scarlet  In  September, 
and  there  are  elder  berries  for  August.  There  Is  no 
telling  what  lots  of  fine  things  Nature  fills  Into  these 
private  corners  —  only  It  Is  necessary  to  cut  out  the 
weeds." 

I  said  to  him,  "  Neighbor,  what  are  weeds?  " 

He  leaned  a  moment  on  his  scythe,  and  said: 
*'  There  are  not  nearly  as  many  as  there  used  to  be ; 
folks  have  learned  the  value  of  some  of  the  worst, 
and  I  guess  that  by  and  by  everything  will  be  worth 
something.  However,  I  cannot  wait  for  that  —  not 
altogether."  And  his  scythe  went  on  clipping  out  the 
stick-tights  and  the  thistles  and  the  elecampane.  It 
was  Adam  over  again,  set  into  the  Garden  of  Eden 
to  tend  and  keep  it. 

A  Government  bulletin  informs  me  that  the  chief 
charm  of  a  lawn  "  consists  in  an  even  stand  of  grass, 
of  uniform  color,  kept  closely  mown."  I  wonder  at 
this,  or  I  should  wonder  if  I  did  not  know  that  some 
of  our  Government  employees  are  young  in  their 
tastes  and  judgment.  I  look  everywhere  else  for 
this  uniformity  of  color  and  fall  to  find  It.  How 
happened  it  that  Nature  never  found  out  this  law  of 
the  beautiful?  She  has  probably  never  read  the  bul- 
letins from  Washington.     My  daily  wonder  is  the 


LAWNS  AND  SHRUBBERY  127 

Infinite  shading  everywhere  of  tree-color  and  plant- 
color  and  the  impossibility  of  finding  even  two  apple 
trees  that  do  not  shade  apart. 

If  possible,  have  a  brook  somewhere  about  your 
property,  and  your  shrubbery  may  be  associated  with 
that,  while  your  tree  lawn  finds  its  closer  association 
with  the  street.  Nothing  can  fill  the  place  of  the 
talkative,  happy,  moody  brook  —  the  only  thing  In 
the  world  that  never  goes  to  sleep.  It  has  an  Espe- 
ranto of  its  own  and  It  talks  understandingly  In  this 
fundamental  language  to  all  attentive  ears. 

I  love  a  brook  and  I  wish  that  I  still  might  paddle 
shoeless  In  Its  shallows.  Utilization  of  brooks  does 
not  consist  entirely  In  the  use  you  can  make  of  the 
water,  but  In  part  of  the  use  you  can  make  of  Its 
music  and  Its  boyish  beauty.  By  all  means  have  a 
brook  associated  with  your  shrubbery  if  you  can  — 
running  down  a  water-carved  glen  possibly.  I  do  not 
quite  say  that  we  do  not  want  a  brook  through  the 
lawn  or  lawns  —  that  Is,  If  It  has  some  dignity  and 
depth.  But  I  want  you  to  feel  the  distinction  be- 
tween a  shrubbery  and  a  lawn  —  that  the  one  shall 
be  retired,  and  the  other  belong  to  the  people. 

The  lawn  should  have  Its  relation  first  to  the  street; 
the  shrubbery  should  have  Its  relation  first  to  the 
house  and  very  little  at  all  to  the  street.  Indeed, 
the  street  should  itself  be  a  lawn,  or  part  of  a  lawn, 
and  fully  as  well  kept  as  that  Inside  the  hedges  or 
fences.  I  would,  In  fact,  take  away  the  fences  and 
hedges  entirely  and  wish  there  were  not  one  left  In 


128     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

America.  Then  I  would  let  the  careful  planting 
extend  down  to  the  ditch  that  flanks  the  roadside. 
All  of  America  will  some  day  become  one  vast  gar- 
den home,  and  the  roadways,  most  beautiful  of  all, 
will  bind  us  together  in  one  great  family. 

After  all,  the  most  important  part  of  our  lawns 
is  the  drives.  These  should  be  liberal,  even  for  a 
very  inexpensive  residence.  Remember  that  our 
lives,  if  rightly  lived  In  the  country,  are  not  indoor 
affairs.  Run  drives  with  welcoming  breadth  to  the 
street  and  let  them  lead  invitingly  about  the  house 
and  lawns  and  then  to  the  barns  and  gardens.  You 
will  then  be  sure  that  your  barns  are  clean  and  their 
surroundings  pleasant. 

I  like  also  to  have  a  liberal  measure  of  home  ex- 
ercise. There  is  no  good  reason  for  living  right  by 
the  street,  and  with  that  have  a  habit  of  going  away 
from  home  for  a  walk.  Our  drives  should  consti- 
tute a  most  delightful  promenade. 

Above  all,  do  not  form  a  habit  of  hailing  a  trolley 
car  and  never  walking  at  all.  Walk,  man  alive ! 
And,  my  dear  lady,  walk!  It  is  the  finest  way  of 
bringing  out  all  your  physical  powers  and  stimulating 
your  intellectual  forces.  Shrubberies  and  lawns 
should  be  used;  and  this  is  just  what  they  were  made 
for  —  to  give  you  health  and  wholesomeness  —  a 
home  life,  broad  and  sweet  and  wholth-ful  (health- 
ful). 


CHAPTER  VI 

OUR  RIVALS 

WE  do  not  like  to  acknowledge  the  fact 
that  we  are  not  quite  masters  of  the 
world,  but  the  fact  is  we  have  a  hard  time, 
to  confirm  our  lordship.  As  far  back  as  time  goes 
and  we  have  any  record  of  it  there  has  been  a  battle 
on  the  globe  between  the  vegetable  and  the  animal 
kingdoms.  At  one  time  the  world  was  astoundingly 
overrun  with  huge  plants.  Vines  of  enormous  size 
clambered  their  hundreds  of  feet  over  trees  that  stood 
three  hundred  feet  high.  Then  again  there  was  the 
Saurian  age,  when  animals  crushed  the  vegetable  life 
under  enormous  feet  and  pulled  the  limbs  from  lofty 
trees. 

Things  tamed  down  a  good  deal  on  both  sides 
before  man  put  in  his  appearance.  With  us  came 
in  three  or  four  families  of  plants,  the  cereal  family, 
the  solanum  family,  the  rosaceae  family,  and  the 
palm  family,  and  at  the  same  time  three  or  four 
families  of  animals,  including  the  reindeer,  the  dog, 
the  horse,  and  the  cow. 

It  needs  no  argument  of  mine  to  show  that  we 
should  have  had  a  hard  time  on  this  globe  without 
these  friendly  neighbors.     By  their  aid  we  have  our 

129 


I30     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

food,  our  raiment,  and  are  able  to  travel  from  place 
to  place.  Not  a  little  of  the  poetry  of  our  lives, 
the  content  and  the  joy  as  well,  is  due  to  these  vege- 
table and  animal  allies. 

At  the  same  time  it  must  be  allowed  that  the  vege- 
table and  the  animal  kingdom  alike  furnish  us  rivals 
that  sometimes  threaten  our  very  existence.  If  there 
Is  any  one  thing  In  the  vegetable  world  got  without 
a  struggle,  I  do  not  know  what  It  is.  Roses,  apples, 
pears,  cherries,  potatoes,  oranges,  wheat,  corn,  it  is 
the  same  thing  everywhere. 

I  have  heard  it  said  that  In  the  good  old  times 
all  you  had  to  do  was  to  sow  or  plant,  and  then  reap 
the  finest  wheat  and  gather  the  most  perfect  apples. 
That  Is  nonsense,  for  during  the  past  sixty  years  I 
have  seen  the  growing  of  wheat  driven  out  of  New 
York  State  by  an  insignificant  Insect,  and  even  with 
all  those  years  I  cannot  count  back  of  the  codling 
moth.  This  trifling  but  pretty  Insect  has  in  that  time 
put  hundreds  of  millions  of  bushels  of  apples  into 
the  waste  heap.  This  Is  a  sorry  story  to  tell  of  the 
mastery  of  man,  as  compared  with  an  insect.  But 
meanwhile  It  Is  this  very  Insect,  with  a  few  more, 
that  has  compelled  us  to  establish  agricultural  col- 
leges, has  caused  the  birth  of  new  sciences,  and  called 
out  our  real  value  in  a  mighty  struggle  to  hold  our 
own. 

The  whole  year  through  the  fruit  grower  and  the 
general  farmer  have  a  continual  battle  to  fight.  It 
begins  early  in  the  spring  and  does  not  quite  end  with 


OUR  RIVALS  131 

the  storage  of  our  crops  In  cellar  and  barn.  I  have 
seen  more  than  one  man  whipped  by  quack  grass  and 
others  driven  from  their  farms  by  scales  and  moths. 

These  antagonists  spoil  for  the  farmers  of  the 
United  States  about  half  a  billion  every  year,  al- 
though the  amount  Is  being  gradually  decreased  by 
scientific  methods.  The  largest  leakage  comes  from 
those  creatures  whose  bread-winning  lines  cross  ours. 
In  some  cases  we  can  turn  them  Into  friends  and 
make  use  of  them ;  In  other  cases  we  may  do  as  Lin- 
coln did  with  the  politicians,  keep  them  fighting 
among  themselves. 

The  sawfly  Is  a  mean  little  beggar  that  puts  In  Its 
work  as  soon  as  foliage  begins  to  turn  green  In  the 
spring.  It  has  found  out  In  some  way  that  its  best 
forage  Is  the  currant  bush  and  the  gooseberry.  Its 
eggs  hatch  first  on  the  gooseberry,  and  If  you  are  alert 
you  will  kill  them  there  before  they  hatch  on  the  cur- 
rant. It  Is  not  a  bad  plan  to  set  a  row  of  goose- 
berries for  every  tenth  row  in  your  currant  field,  In 
which  case  the  fly  will  not  bother  much  with  the 
latter. 

Being  of  English  origin,  he  likes  gooseberries  as 
well  as  the  folk  do  over  there,  and  he  will  absolutely 
defoliate  your  whole  garden  If  he  has  a  chance.  The 
result  will  be  not  only  total  loss  of  fruit,  but  a  de- 
vitalizing of  the  bushes.  If  there  are  any  left  the 
hens  will  take  them.  In  fact  there  Is  not  a  single 
fruit  that  the  barn  fowl  likes  so  well  as  a  green  goose- 
berry —  so  look  out  for  them. 


132     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

As  for  the  worms,  as  soon  as  they  begin  to  hatch, 
spray  with  hellebore  and  Bordeaux  mixture  united,  as 
soon  as  the  first  nest  hatches.  One  spraying  will 
probably  be  enough,  and  it  is  a  pleasant  fact  to  record 
that  this  plague  of  the  garden  is  decreasing  very 
steadily.  For  the  last  two  years  I  have  hardly  lost 
a  day's  work  in  fighting  them. 

Nearly  seventy  years  ago  I  saw  the  curculio  put- 
ting in  his  work  in  the  plum  yards  of  New  York 
State,  and  the  rascal,  we  called  him  the  Turk,  has 
held  his  own  wonderfully.  Go  where  you  will,  and 
most  people  will  tell  you  that  their  plums  blossom 
well  but  they  cannot  get  any  fruit  —  the  plums  all 
fall  off  half  grown.  They  imagine  the  plum  itself  is 
at  fault,  or  the  soil,  or  the  climate. 

The  fact  is  that  the  plum  fits  itself  to  all  soils 
more  readily  than  any  other  fruit  tree  and  is  the  near- 
est to  a  cosmopolitan  that  we  have  in  the  rose  family. 
It  is  hardier  than  the  apple  and  quite  as  hardy  as 
the  pear,  only  the  curculio  is  everywhere  to  match  it, 
and  it  needs  the  fruit  in  which  to  propagate  its  spe- 
cies. Just  when  it  began  to  sting  the  plum  I  do 
not  know,  nor  how  it  learned  the  trick  of  breeding 
in  that  fruit.  It  was,  however,  a  wonderful  fitness, 
and  so  the  curculio  became  our  worst  rival  in  the 
plum  yard.  Who  is  going  to  whip  and  who  be 
whipped  —  that  is  the  problem. 

Our  remedy  is  very  simple,  and  for  once  we  do  not 
resort  to  poisonous  mixtures.  First  of  all  get  a  pole 
about  eight  or  ten  feet  long  and  wrap  the  end  with 


OUR  RIVALS  133 

pieces  of  old  carpet  or  sacking  until  it  is  a  soft  pad. 
Now  get  some  strong  sheeting  and  make  a  cloth  that 
will  cover  the  whole  ground  underneath  the  tree. 
Let  this  be  ripped  up  to  the  middle  so  that  when 
spread  the  tree  will  stand  in  the  middle. 

Now  rap  suddenly  and  sharply  the  larger  limbs  of 
the  tree,  and  every  curculio  will  drop  on  the  ground, 
with  his  legs  rolled  up,  playing  'possum.  Be  spry 
and  catch  these  before  they  begin  to  fly  away.  Crush 
them  or  put  them  into  a  bottle  to  be  killed  later. 
This  process  of  jarring  the  trees  must  be  carried  on 
for  about  two  weeks.  The  number  will  decrease  very 
rapidly  after  the  sixth  day.  Only  this :  remember  to 
begin  your  work  just  as  the  petals  are  falling  from 
the  earliest  plums  —  the  Magnum  Bonums  and 
Abundance. 

In  the  apple  orchard  we  must  have  begun  our  work 
already,  that  is  just  before  the  blossom  petals  of  the 
earliest  varieties  open.  The  codling  moth  has  been, 
our  chief  rival  with  this  glorious  fruit  for  at  least 
one  hundred  years.  A  pretty  and  innocent  bit  of 
fluttering  life,  it  goes  through  several  stages  of  exist- 
ence before  it  Is  a  full-fledged  flier.  Its  larval  state 
is  lived  most  advantageously  In  the  young  apple. 
The  moth  lays  Its  eggs  in  April  or  early  May  In  the 
blow  end  of  the  fruit.  The  egg  hatches  Into  a  small 
worm,  which  takes  a  curved  line  for  the  center  of  the 
fruit.  When  It  enters  the  core  the  apple  Is  likely  to 
weaken  on  the  stem. 

If  It  falls  to  the  ground  the  larva  finds  a  hiding- 


134     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

place  and  goes  through  a  transformation,  by  way  of 
chrysalis,  into  a  moth.  Rather  a  trivial  rival  for  the 
child  of  anthropoids,  but  he  will  take  the  whole  apple 
crop  from  us,  unless  we  put  up  a  persistent  and  very 
intelligent  fight.  If  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds  painted 
with  brains,  the  horticulturist  of  our  day  has  to  grow 
apples  with  brains.  A  few  men  of  science  showed 
the  way,  and  our  agricultural  colleges  are  yet  none 
too  numerous  or  alert  in  their  Investigations  to  solve 
just  these  bug  and  moth  and  worm  problems. 

The  use  of  arsenites  began,  I  think,  with  this  very^ 
moth,  but  now  It  Is  a  remedy  In  a  dozen  field  fights. 
The  solution  must  be  applied  just  before  the  blossoms 
open  and  once  more  just  after  the  petals  drop,  possi- 
bly a  third  time  ten  days  later.  In  order  to  make  sure 
of  the  crop.  The  minute  spray  enters  the  blossom 
end  and  poisons  the  first  meal  of  the  larva.  Think 
of  the  research  and  the  study  needed  to  find  this  out, 
and  the  resolution  on  the  part  of  an  old-fashioned 
farmer  to  turn  out  of  his  tracks  and  do  it. 

In  fact,  a  large  number  of  apple  growers  refuse  to 
do  it,  and  now  our  apple  crop  Instead  of  being  larger 
is  relatively  smaller  to  the  people,  and  the  price  of 
apples  has  gone  up  from  one  dollar  per  barrel  to  five 
dollars.  This  dear  old  fruit  is  no  longer  found  in 
the  school  boy's  dinner  pail  and  the  poor  man's  cel- 
lar. A  good  apple  costs  more  than  a  good  orange. 
There  Is  no  higher  reach  of  science  than  that  which 
enters  our  orchards  and  gardens  and  brings  us  out 
victors  in  the  struggle  with  Insects. 


OUR  RIVALS  T35 

But  all  this  while  the  vegetable  world  is  out  of 
harmony  with  us,  that  is  with  our  control,  and  fungus 
diseases  are  at  work  —  more  dangerous  even  than 
insects.  We  must  begin  our  contest  with  this  sort 
of  rivalry  very  early  in  the  spring  and  it  must  go  on 
through  the  whole  year.  No  one  can  tell  just  when 
there  will  be  a  sudden  development  of  some  form  of 
parasitic  growth. 

The  spores  that  make  plum  knot  scatter  and  plant 
themselves  late  In  the  fall,  or  even  in  the  winter. 
These  grow  with  Immense  rapidity,  and  your  whole 
orchard  will  be  covered  In  a  single  season.  This 
must  be  fought  with  a  sharp  knife,  cutting  above  and 
below  the  knot,  and  sometimes  sacrificing  a  whole 
tree.  It  Is  a  pleasant  fact  that  some  sorts  of  plums 
are  entirely  Immune.  Pear  tree  fungus  comes  In  the 
form  of  blight  and  Is  imperceptible  to  the  human 
eye  until  large  limbs  or  whole  trees  are  done  for. 

Spraying  with  Bordeaux  mixture  Is  a  general  pre- 
ventive of  these  fungoid  developments,  and  It  Is  a 
good  thing,  very  late  in  the  fall,  to  give  a  good  spray- 
ing to  every  fruit  tree  you  have.  It  will  do  no  harm 
if  applied  In  the  winter  —  better  yet  very  early  in 
the  spring,  before  foliage  starts.  However,  there 
are  many  fungi  that  cannot  be  either  prevented  or 
cured  by  this  remedy. 

Your  apple  and  pear  trees  with  scabby  bark  must 
be  thoroughly  washed  or  sponged,  once  a  month, 
with  strong  kerosene  emulsion  and  Bordeaux  mix- 
ture.    This  will  kill  the  fungus  and  stimulate  healthy 


136     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

growth.  The  same  remedy  must  be  used  for  your 
grapes  and  grape  vines,  but  anthracnose  must  be  met 
with  a  sponge  of  sulphate  of  iron,  applied  before  the 
foliage  starts  in  the  spring. 

The  yellowing  of  the  foliage  on  your  fruit  trees 
in  midsummer  means  another  fungus  attack;  espe- 
cially your  plum  trees  may  throw  off  a  large  part  of 
their  foliage  just  when  it  is  needed  to  perfect  the 
ripening  of  the  fruit.  It  Is  a  good  thing  to  antici- 
pate something  of  this  sort  with  a  thorough  spraying 
a  little  after  the  fruit  sets.  In  all  cases  remember 
that  disease  Is  associated  with  bad  management.  If 
your  trees  are  growing  just  right  and  are  not  stand- 
ing In  either  too  wet  or  too  heated  soil  and  have  been 
trimmed  correctly  and  have  not  been  whipped  up 
too  sharply  with  fertilizers,  you  are  not  very  likely 
to  see  a  fungus  developing. 

It  Is  curious  to  know  that  your  pear  tree  blight 
can  be  most  easily  prevented  by  growing  the  trees 
in  sod  land,  not  without  cultivation  to  be  sure,  but 
forked  about  Instead  of  plowed,  and  a  good  mulch 
kept  continually  about  the  tree.  This  mulch,  I  may 
as  well  say,  is  made  up  most  easily  of  the  coal  ashes 
from  your  furnace,  or  with  any  waste  material  that  is 
porous.  Keep  It  a  little  back  from  the  trunk  and 
have  it  thick  enough  to  equalize  the  temperature  and 
moisture  about  the  roots. 

The  simplest  way  to  apply  hellebore  to  currants  is 
from  a  small  barrel,  rigged  with  a  pump  and  hose. 
For  a  large  orchard  this  barrel  can  be  carried  about 


OUR  RIVALS  137 

on  a  wagon,  but  in  my  own  grounds  I  have  the  barrel 
rigged  between  two  wheels  and  shafts  for  a  horse. 
This  arrangement  needs  one  to  drive  the  horse  and 
one  to  do  the  pumping.  If  you  are  a  fruit  grower, 
you  must  learn  to  do  your  own  work  along  these 
lines,  for  most  of  the  spraying  that  is  done  by  pro- 
fessionals is  hardly  worth  the  while.  The  spray 
must  be  put  on  very  fine  and  until  the  whole  tree  is 
literally  wetted. 

If  Bordeaux  and  arsenlte  are  to  be  applied,  they 
can  be  mixed  together,  and  in  this  way  only  one 
spraying  is  required.  We  are  talking  very  freely 
about  deadly  poisons  and  a  very  free  use  of  them 
among  our  fruits.  I  w^arn  you  that  this  business 
has  been  carried  a  good  deal  too  far  in  many  cases 
and  that  much  harm  has  accrued ;  not  only  in  the  way 
of  damaging  the  crop  but  also  of  poisoning  the  at- 
mosphere. Some  of  us  cannot  endure  an  appreciable 
amount  of  arsenic,  while  others  are  unaffected.  At 
all  events  use  caution.  Not  one-tenth  the  amount 
of  arsenic  is  needed  to  kill  your  potato  bugs  that  is 
generally  used. 

Borere  are  queer  creatures;  with  bodies  as  soft  as 
hasty  pudding,  they  have  jaws  sharper  than  the  best 
steel  saw.  They  will  work  their  way  through  ash 
trees  and  bore  young  apple  trees  all  into  sawdust. 
They  have  to  be  fought  at  all  seasons,  especially  in 
our  orchard  trees.  The  apple  and  quince  trees  fur- 
nish a  resort  for  the  same  borer,  and  it  takes  a  very 
short  time  to  ruin  a  tree. 


138     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

The  peach  tree  has  another  borer  which  is  quite 
as  destructive.  You  must  look  for  the  work  just 
at  the  surface  of  the  ground,  or  in  the  mulch  which 
you  have  placed  about  the  tree.  Clear  the  way  with 
a  sharp  knife,  cutting  the  blackened  bark  until  you 
find  the  mouth  of  the  hole,  then  with  flexible  wire 
bore  the  borer  to  death.  Cover  the  wound  with  wax, 
If  it  be  large  enough  to  be  serious,  and  then  pile  coal 
ashes  around  the  tree,  until  the  gritty  material  covers 
all  that  part  where  the  beetle  has  been  at  work. 

A  full  grown  plum  or  peach  tree  will  need  half  a 
bushel  of  ashes,  while  twice  that  amount  will  hardly 
be  enough  for  some  of  your  apple  or  pear  trees.  It 
is  not  a  bad  plan  to  anticipate  these  insects  by  wrap- 
ping your  young  trees  with  tarred  paper.  If  you 
have  borers  in  your  grape  vines  or  your  currant 
bushes,  cut  below  their  incisions  and  burn  the  prun- 
ings. 

You  see  that  I  am  making  considerable  note  of 
coal  ashes,  and  I  assure  you  that  this  material  should 
never  be  wasted.  It  is  not  only  of  great  use  about 
your  trees  as  a  mulch,  but  as  you  throw  it  about  your 
soil,  while  renewing  mulch,  it  is  a  capital  material  to 
mix  with  clay  and  keep  the  soil  loose.  Notice  that 
it  prevents  borers  from  working,  is  a  splendid  ma- 
terial for  mulch,  and  it  loosens  clay  soils,  and  you 
can  make  these  three  uses  unite  in  one.  Some  of 
our  least  valued  eveiyday  material  is  of  more  value 
than  the  high  priced  stuff  that  Is  bought  as  fertilizer. 
I  would  rather  have  a  few  cart  loads  of  anthracite 


OUR  RIVALS  139 

coal  ashes  than  so  many  bags  of  high  grade  and 
costly,  but  lauded,  material  from  the  factories. 

Lately  a  new  rival  of  ours  has  appeared,  and  so 
far  we  are  unable  to  cope  with  It;  at  least  none  of  the 
preventives  and  remedies  that  I  have  named  will  do 
the  work.  It  is  just  a  fly;  we  call  it  the  trypeta  fly. 
In  Massachusetts  you  will  hear  its  work,  done  in  the 
larval  state,  described  as  railroading.  The  larva  Is 
very  minute  and  is  very  deliberate  about  putting  in 
its  work.  The  fly  works  all  summer,  while  the  cod- 
ling moth  works  only  in  the  spring.  Sometimes  the 
eggs  do  not  hatch  until  your  apples  are  in  the  bins 
for  the  winter.  If  the  cellar  is  warm  they  will  do 
their  work  even  m  January,  and  gutter  your  Jona- 
thans and  sometimes  your  Spitzenburgs  ruinously. 
The  skin  of  the  apple  remains  fair,  but  at  heart  you 
will  find  nothing  but  a  black  mass. 

The  fly  has  Its  favorite  varieties  to  work  in,  so  that 
some  of  our  fine  old  summer  fruits,  like  Sweet  Bough 
and  Golden  Sweet,  are  practically  banished  from  the 
orchard.  I  have  not  seen  a  thoroughly  clean  Sweet 
Bough  for  ten  years.  This  fly  so  far  has  the  best  of 
us.  Spraying  does  not  touch  the  larva,  for  the  egg 
Is  laid  through  a  puncture  in  the  skin  of  half-grown 
fruit.  We  can  only  pick  up  the  Infected  apples  and 
roast  them  or  soak  them  In  poisonous  water.  We 
do  well  to  grow  our  trees  in  the  open,  where  bright 
sunshine  makes  It  disagreeable  for  our  rival. 

Cicero  ended  all  his  speeches  with  Delenda  est 
Carthago  —  "  Carthage  must  be  destroyed."     I  feel 


I40     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

about  this  way  when  I  consider  the  last-named  pest; 
the  trypeta  must  be  destroyed,  only  who  is  going  to 
do  it?  I  am  afraid  it  is  too  much  to  ask  of  the  or- 
dinary farmer  that  he  pick  up  all  his  summer-dropped 
apples  and  bury  them  so  deep  that  the  larvae  cannot 
get  out,  or  burn  them  so  that  no  larvae  can  escape. 
But  this  battle  is  a  very  serious  one,  and  everyone 
who  lives  in  the  country  must  think  it  out  very  clearly. 

Each  year  is  pretty  sure  to  bring  about  a  special 
trouble  of  its  own  —  an  insect  or  worm  that  can 
give  us  a  lot  of  work  to  do,  as  well  as  a  lot  of  think- 
ing. Four  years  ago,  without  any  warning,  the  pear 
psylla  appeared  in  immense  numbers  all  over  our  pear 
trees  and  lindens  or  basswoods.  There  were  some 
of  them  on  other  trees,  but  mostly  they  were  confined 
to  those  I  have  named.  These  hordes  of  sucking 
insects  took  the  vitality  out  of  the  foliage  to  such  an 
extent  that  many  trees  were  defoliated,  while  not  a 
few  were  killed  entirely. 

Then  came  in  one  of  Nature's  beautiful  balances. 
The  leaves  were  covered  with  a  sweet  exudation,  from 
which  our  bees  made  a  vast  quantity  of  honey  — 
perhaps  not  the  very  best  in  quality,  but  a  fairly  good 
and  a  large  storage.  I  do  not  think  I  should  have 
cared  to  eat  it  first  hand  from  the  leaves,  but  I  rel- 
ished it  after  the  bees  had  worked  it  over. 

At  the  same  time  the  white-faced  hornet  began  to 
build  his  paper  nests  all  about  our  trees  and  porches. 
How  he  found  out  the  sudden  presence  of  a  vast 
quantity  of  food  I  do  not  know,  but  he  surely  did. 


OUR  RIVALS  T41 

The  hornets  ate  uncountable  millions  of  the  little  in- 
sects. It  was  a  poem  altogether,  and  although  we 
alone  would  have  stood  a  poor  chance  against  the 
silly  psylla,  with  our  insect  allies  we  came  off  fairly 
well. 

The  worst  pest,  however,  that  I  can  remember, 
and  the  most  awful  fight  that  I  was  ever  compelled 
to  put  up,  was  with  the  forest  worm  about  ten 
years  ago.  This  abominable  pest  comes  about  once 
in  thirty-three  years,  three  times  in  a  century,  or  once 
in  a  generation  of  human  beings.  It  marches  over 
vast  territories  with  astonishing  speed  and  eats  pretty 
nearly  everything  in  its  way.  Gardens  disappear; 
orchards  are  utterly  defoliated;  and  a  very  large  part 
of  our  lawn  trees  bared  to  the  bone. 

I  am  happy  to  be  able  to  place  right  here  the  name 
of  one  tree  that  Is  largely  exempt.  The  Norway 
maple  has  a  milky  juice  that  is  acrid.  It  Is  so  un- 
pleasant to  worms  that  even  the  forest  worm  skipped 
it.  Yet  the  Norway  maple  Is  the  grandest  of  our 
Acer  family,  growing  faster  than  the  sugar  maple 
and  with  a  foliage  and  a  spread  of  foliage  unequaled. 
You  can  bear  this  In  mind  when  planting  your  streets 
or  lawns.  The  forest  worm  Is  a  caterpillar,  about 
two  Inches  in  length,  and  a  bushel  to  a  tree  would  be 
a  very  small  estimate. 

You  must  fight  with  fire,  circling  your  trees  with 
wraps  that  will  prevent  their  climbing  after  having 
thoroughly  jarred  them  out  of  the  tree,  and  you  must 
not  let  up  for  church  on  Sunday.    I  am  sure  that 


142     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

praying  will  do  nothing  with  this  worm.  Then  again 
you  must  be  a  little  ahead  In  the  fight,  and  If  you 
would  keep  them  out  of  your  property  you  must  meet 
them  the  other  side  of  the  fence.  It  Is  possible  to 
be  victorious  even  against  such  odds,  for  we  saved  our 
nine  acres  of  berries  and  fruits,  like  an  oasis  In  the 
desert. 

There  is  a  large  class  of  sporadic  rivals  that  we 
must  discover  for  ourselves.  They  come  at  any  time 
and  there  is  no  law  about  them.  Most,  however, 
come  by  periods,  so  that  we  may  as  well  be  ready  be- 
forehand. The  May  beetle  has  the  habit  of  brood- 
ing in  the  ground  and  going  through  with  some  of 
his  transformations  there,  emerging  only  every  third 
year.  That  is,  you  will  find  a  few  May  bugs,  or 
June  bugs  as  some  call  them,  tumbling  against  your 
lamp  shade  any  year ;  It  is  only  every  third  year  that 
they  emerge  in  vast  crowds. 

Fortunately  they  are  generally  delayed  by  cold 
weather  until  most  of  the  trees  have  their  foliage 
pretty  well  developed  and  toughened.  It  Is  only 
the  butternuts  and  the  white  ash  that  are  still  tender 
enough  to  furnish  forage.  These  are  sometimes 
badly  cut  up  or  stripped.  Here  again  comes  in  one 
of  Nature's  handsome  helps.  When  the  beetles  are 
in  the  ground,  working  slowly  up  to  the  surface,  the 
moles  will  multiply  astoundingly  and  you  will  find 
their  tunnels  everywhere.  Do  not  kill  them,  for 
they  are  eating  the  larva  that  would  otherwise  be- 
come the  destructive  May  bug. 


OUR  RIVALS  143 

The  tent  caterpillar  comes  irregularly,  and  if  left 
to  do  its  work  undisturbed  makes  a  terrible  mess  of 
it.  He  will  ruin  an  orchard,  not  only  for  the  pres- 
ent year,  but  will  kill  the  trees.  When  this  rival 
is  to  appear  you  will  see  a  few  advance  couriers  the 
year  previous;  attack  them  at  once;  burn  out  every 
nest  as  soon  as  it  appears,  and  Instead  of  having  mil- 
lions you  will  have  only  a  few  hundreds  to  watch 
for  the  critical  year. 

Scale  bugs  Infest  our  gardens  and  orchards  and 
must  be  looked  for  with  considerable  care,  because 
some  of  them  multiply  with  great  rapidity  and  do 
their  work  with  astonishing  speed.  The  remedy  is 
kerosene  emulsion,  or  whale  oil  soap,  or  both  com- 
bined, well  sponged  into  the  bark.  A  tree  that  has 
become  badly  devitalized  may  as  well  be  cut  down. 
The  San  Jose  scale,  which  created  terror  all  over  the 
continent  and  did  Immense  mischief  In  a  dozen  States, 
Is  now  pretty  well  under  control.  Like  all  other 
scales  It  sucks  the  sap  and  poisons  the  wood  of  the 
tree  at  the  same  time. 

The  lime-sulphur  mixture  was  the  remedy  that 
finally  met  the  difficulty,  as  well  as  man  could  meet 
it;  when  there  came  In  a  fungus  parasite,  an  insignifi- 
cant thing  to  be  counted  as  an  ally  for  a  human  being, 
but  so  far  as  It  has  extended  Its  work  it  has  swept  the 
enemy  before  It.  In  my  Florida  garden,  where  the 
scale  had  begun  Its  ravages,  the  fungus  completely 
routed  It  In  a  single  year.  How  far  North  this 
friend  will  do  Its  work  I  cannot  say. 


144     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

Bear  In  mind  always  that  the  best  protection  for  a 
tree  against  insect  attack  is  to  keep  it  in  good  grow- 
ing health.  This  is  particularly  true  of  the  aphidae 
or  lice,  that  they  put  in  their  appearance  largely  as 
scavengers,  to  clean  up  sickly  foliage.  A  thrifty 
houseplant  stands  a  good  chance  of  resisting  their 
attack  and  a  well-kept  and  well-groomed  apple  tree 
suffers  far  less  from  them  than  one  in  which  the  juices 
are  slow  and  the  vitality  low.  Insignificant  as  the 
aphidae  are,  their  enormous  numbers,  the  result  of 
most  astounding  rapidity  of  multiplication,  make 
them  one  of  our  most  serious  rivals.  The  hop  louse 
appears  on  our  plum  trees  and  buckthorn  hedges  in 
spring,  covering  them  with  hordes  of  sucking  and 
killing  beggars,  and  In  midsummer  sends  off  a  gener- 
ation with  wings  to  destroy  the  hop  yards. 

Professor  Riley,  United  States  entomologist,  made 
as  pretty  a  study  as  science  ever  achieved  in  working 
up  this  special  pest.  It  is  miraculous,  the  speed  with 
which  these  lice  will  cover  the  orchards  of  a  whole 
State,  or  of  half  a  dozen  States,  and  the  worst  of  it 
is  that  Nature  seems  to  go  over  to  their  side  and 
help  them  out.  The  leaves  curl  up  and  make  it 
nearly  Impossible  to  hit  them  with  a  spray.  More 
than  that.  If  you  kill  ten  millions  in  the  morning,  be- 
fore night  there  will  be  twenty  millions  more 
hatched  out  and  every  one  at  work  sucking  the  life 
from  the  foliage.  Professor  Forbes  estimates  that 
a  single  mother  In  a  single  season  will  produce  nine 
and  a  half  quadrillions  of  young.     It  is  hardly  worth 


OUR  RIVALS  145 

while  proving  to  him  that  he  Is  two  or  tliree  millions 
off  the  track  either  way. 

The  woolly  aphis  is  one  of  the  worst  in  the  family, 
for  it  floats  on  the  air  like  a  bit  of  cotton,  finding  its 
lodgment  in  the  joints  of  trees  and  creating  a  blister 
wherever  it  rests.  One  of  these  woolly  creatures 
works  just  under  the  ground,  creating  galls  on  grapes. 
Nearly  all  deposit  a  honey  dew,  and  this  in  some  cases 
is  utilized,  as  It  is  in  the  case  of  the  psylla,  by  the 
bees. 

Among  the  small  friends  that  aid  us  In  this  fight 
with  our  small  rivals  we  must  count  the  lady  beetles, 
or  as  the  children  call  them  "  carriage  bugs."  Twice 
within  the  last  ten  years  the  apple  crop  has  been 
nearly  obliterated  in  half  a  dozen  states  by  aphis,  and 
in  both  cases  the  evil  was  mitigated  by  a  parasitic 
help. 

It  was  in  the  summer  of  1864,  or  possibly  1865, 
that  I  first  saw  the  potato  beetle,  then  called  the  Col- 
orado beetle,  on  Its  first  march  eastward.  I  was  re- 
siding in  Michigan,  and  the  foul  army  came  by  tens 
of  millions,  marching  straight  ahead.  When  it  came 
to  an  obstacle  it  never  turned  out,  but  simply  climbed 
and  went  over,  if  it  could  —  hills  and  hillocks,  fences, 
and  even  houses  and  barns.  Going  eastward  during 
midsummer,  I  found  them  at  Niagara  Falls  —  just 
arrived.  Every  floating  chip  on  Lake  Erie  carried 
a  stupid,  vulgar,  stinking  beetle.  Tens  of  thousands, 
of  course,  were  drowned,  but  enough  crossed  the 
lakes  and  the  rivers  to  make  a  start. 


146     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

In  two  years  more  they  were  in  every  potato  field 
of  New  York  State,  and  by  the  third  year  they  covered 
New  England.  Then  we  had  a  job.  They  ate  all 
before  them,  and  their  countless  progeny  finished 
the  work.  The  larvae  started  from  a  mass  of  yellow 
and  most  disagreeable  looking  eggs,  themselves  more 
disagreeable,  for  a  few  years  rendering  our  potato 
crop  a  negation.  It  was  nearly  as  bad  as  the  blight, 
and  our  agricultural  colleges  with  their  experiment 
stations  were  hardly  then  born.  Science,  however, 
stepped  in  and  solved  the  problem.  The  pest  is 
still  moving  on,  and  we  can  help  move  it  by  spraying 
every  potato  field  thoroughly  with  arsenites,  as  we 
apply  Bordeaux  for  the  blight. 

The  Kansas  grasshopper  illustrates  a  very  common 
rival  of  ours  which  has  made  history  in  Bible  lands 
and  all  through  the  Orient,  for  this  hopper  is  nothing 
else  than  the  old  time  locust  —  the  same  that  St.  John 
ate  and  which  constituted  and  still  constitutes  an  ar- 
ticle of  diet  for  millions  of  people.  I  saw  the  edge 
of  the  battle  field  in  Missouri,  and  that  was  enough 
to  explain  why  the  people  deserted  their  homes  and 
fled  the  country.  Professor  Johonnot  and  myself, 
standing  twenty  feet  apart,  shook  our  hats  before  us 
as  we  approached  each  other  and  caught  a  pint  each 
of  the  quarter-grown  insects.  This  was  out  of  the 
main  battle  field  and  the  hoppers  were  only  fairly 
well  at  work. 

When  the  Government  sent  Professor  Riley  to 


OUR  RIVALS  147 

Investigate,  it  was  well  into  the  heart  of  the  field. 
He  reported  that  the  clouds  of  Insects  reached  from 
the  earth  beyond  the  height  of  human  vision  and  that 
It  was  these  rolling  clouds  that  swept  vegetation  so 
completely  out  of  existence  that  nothing  seemed  to 
be  left  but  dust.  Our  meadows  and  corn  fields  in 
New  England  frequently  suffer  severely  from  the  lo- 
cust. Meanwhile  the  cricket  helps  the  slug,  doing 
its  work  a  little  more  slyly  around  the  roots  of  our 
lettuce  and  our  strawberries. 

I  have  already  suggested  that  honey  can  be  made 
on  the  trail  of  the  aphidae,  and  now  let  me  call  your 
attention  to  the  fact  that  your  grasshopper  makes 
capital  food  for  your  hens.  It  Is  In  this  way  that 
good  comes  out  of  evil  and  Nature  brings  compen- 
sation everywhere.  Weeds  really  are  not  weeds, 
because  they  have  In  them  a  power  of  progress  — 
only  we  must  find  out  what  they  are  good  for.  The 
beggar  weed,  which  is  our  very  best  forage  and  hay 
plant  in  the  South,  was  for  a  long  time  held  to  be 
the  worst  pest  of  the  cotton  field.  Injurious  animals 
are  on  the  road  forward,  for  the  most  part,  and  even 
the  wolves  have  given  us  the  collie  dog. 

We  are  ourselves  creatures  of  progress,  and  gen- 
erally that  progress  is  speeded.  If  it  Is  not  measured, 
by  our  rivals  —  that  is,  when  we  have  transformed 
them  Into  allies.  There  is  a  fine  passage  in  the  Bible 
which  tells  us  that  the  whole  creation  travails  to- 
gether,  waiting  for  Its   redemption   In  man.     The 


148     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

chief  end  of  man  is  to  bring  the  apparently  evil  to  a 
useful  purpose  and  give  to  everything  a  chance  for 
right  character. 

Curious,  is  it  not?  that  our  worst  pests  are  the  out- 
laws among  our  friends,  the  fellows  who  have  organ- 
ized for  plunder,  like  the  crows  and  the  English  spar- 
rows. On  the  other  hand  our  best  friends  are  de- 
scendants of  savage  animals.  Degeneration  in  bird 
or  insect  or  animal  is  exactly  like  degeneration  in  hu- 
man folk,  the  very  worst  thing  to  get  on  with.  Bed- 
bugs are  the  degenerate  descendants  of  a  very  decent 
ancestor,  while  our  most  beautiful  and  useful  birds 
are  of  saurian  or  serpent  origin.  All  the  difference 
was  that  the  snakes  went  hissing  through  the  grass, 
while  the  songsters  went  singing  skyward. 

It  was  well  ordered  of  Nature  that  we  should 
earn  our  bread  by  the  sweat  of  the  brow.  It  will 
not  hurt  us  to  have  sharp  rivalry.  "  Ye  blackberry," 
says  Poor  Richard,  "  is  a  great  help  to  us;  for  it  hath 
power  not  only  to  give  us  sweet  fruit,  but  to  quicken 
patience  and  persistence ;  and  one  shall  be  the  better 
for  being  sometimes  pricked  along  the  road  of  daily 
duties."  All  the  same  it  is  a  fine  thing  for  us  to  cre- 
ate thornless  blackberries  and  seedless  grapes  and  in 
other  ways  to  improve  the  world.  That  is  the  best 
kind  of  a  monument  you  can  have. 

And  then  how  we  Americans  do  waste.  Last  win- 
ter, when  I  went  to  my  Florida  home,  the  orange 
orchards  were  paved  with  golden  globes.  "  Take 
all  you  want,"  said  my  neighbor,  who  owned  three 


OUR  RIVALS  149 

hundred  trees.  The  drought  had  loosened  the  fruit, 
and  the  sky,  so  lovably  blue  to  us,  was  spoiling  the 
crops.  "Take  care;  do  not  step  on  them,"  you 
say  involuntarily,  for  to  a  Northerner  an  orange  is 
still  sacred.  The  upshot  was  that  we  pressed  twenty 
bushels  into  vinegar  —  better  vinegar  than  that  from 
apples.  The  bluejays  hooted  at  us,  while  they 
gorged  themselves  on  mulberries.  I  wonder  if  any- 
one really  can  live  a  simple  life;  at  any  rate  we  Yan- 
kees saved  the  oranges  and  made  vinegar  enough 
for  forty  years.  Yet  in  all  Florida  a  million  bushels 
went  to  waste.  This  is  but  one  item  In  the  annual 
loss  that  we  ought  to  know  how  to  prevent.  Wind 
and  weather  combine  with  our  insect  rivals  to  reduce 
our  wages  for  work  to  a  minimum ;  we  must  deter- 
mine the  maximum. 

One  must  pluck  victory  from  defeat.  Make  all 
your  defective  fruit,  both  apples  and  pears,  into 
cider,  and  when  your  crop  runs  over  the  market 
demands,  have  a  home  cannery.  Every  country 
home  of  any  size  should  have  its  own  cider  press 
and  turn  to  value  what  most  of  the  growers  let 
waste.  Grind  no  half-rotten  stuff,  wash  off  all  dirt, 
and  put  in  no  water.  Cider,  genuine  cider,  is  a 
drink  for  Jupiter,  and  real  honest,  clean,  pure  cider 
will  bring  a  remunerative  price. 

I  cannot  close  this  chapter  wisely  without  giving 
you  formulas  for  two  or  three  of  the  more  Important 
fungicides  and  Insecticides.  For  Bordeaux  mixture 
take  three  pounds  copper  sulphate,  three  pounds  of 


150     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

quick  lime  or  stone  lime,  dissolving  in  forty-five  or 
fifty  gallons  of  water.  Dissolve  the  sulphate  in  hot 
water,  dilute  the  lime  when  slaked  with  fifteen  gal- 
lons of  water ;  then  unite,  and  the  compound  is  ready 
for  use.  Keep  the  solutions  separate  unless  you  wish 
to  use  at  once.  For  Paris  green  mixture  dissolve 
about  three  pounds  of  quick  lime  and  a  single  pound 
of  Paris  green  in  two  hundred  gallons  of  water. 
Use  an  excess  of  lime  when  spraying  peach  trees  or 
plums. 

Kerosene  emulsion  is  made  by  dissolving  half  a 
pound  of  hard  soap  in  a  single  gallon  of  boiling  wa- 
ter; add  two  gallons  of  kerosene  and  churn  with  a 
small  pump,  until  the  whole  is  so  thoroughly  mixed 
as  to  constitute  a  soap.  This  emulsion  should  be 
kept  on  hand  at  all  seasons  and  can  be  used  for  scale 
insects  in  winter,  as  well  as  for  thrips  and  lice  in  sum- 
mer. 

You  say  I  have  altogether  omitted  discussion  of 
the  fight  In  the  flower  gardens.  I  have  not,  for  kero- 
sene emulsion  is  the  one  altogether  Important  pre- 
ventive and  remedy  for  the  enemies  of  the  rose  and 
of  the  borers  and  Insects  on  the  shrubbery.  Keep 
a  pail  of  this  emulsion  ready  at  all  times.  For  roses 
and  similar  plants  use  about  half  a  pint  to  a  pail  of 
water,  and  spray  thoroughly.  For  house  plants  a 
spray  of  suds  from  sulpho-tobacco  soap  is  useful;  and 
about  equally  effective  is  a  spray  of  water  In  which 
have  been  boiled  tobacco  stems;  add  water  to  make 
two  gallons  of  liquid  for  every  pound  of  tobacco 


OUR  RIVALS  151 

stems  used.  If  you  have  an  aggravated  case  of  red 
spider-  or  thrlps,  stir  into  the  mixture  one  pound  of 
whale  oil  soap  for  every  fifty  gallons. 

I  shall  have  something  to  say  in  my  next  chapter 
about  flies  and  mosquitoes,  for  they  are  not  altogether 
quite  the  only  sinners  In  the  world,  although  they  cer- 
tainly are  sometimes  very  keen  rivals  of  the  human 
family.  They  render  some  sections  uninhabitable 
and  they  carry  dangerous  bacteria  which  make  many 
fevers  more  destructive.  The  most  available  method 
for  combating  them  is  to  spray  crude  petroleum  over 
the  puddles  and  pools  where  mosquitoes  breed;  as 
for  the  house  fly,  if  you  will  see  to  it  that  there  is  not 
a  dirty  stable  within  half  a  mile  of  you,  you  will  see 
very  few  flies  about  your  home.  They  breed  in  ma- 
nure piles,  which  should  never  be  allowed  to  ac- 
cumulate and  should  always  be  disinfected. 

Slop  holes  about  a  kitchen  door  and  defective  sew- 
erage and  puddles  of  standing  water  are  a  menace 
to  the  public  health,  as  well  as  to  private  comfort  and 
safety.  By  and  by  we  shall  prevent  such  things  by 
social  enactment.  The  destruction  of  flies  and  mos- 
quitoes should  be  a  neighborhood  affair.  If  you  live 
in  the  country  you  should  not  make  your  surround- 
ings of  a  character  that  renders  your  home  dangerous 
to  the  welfare  of  the  community. 


CHAPTER  VII 

OUR  ALLIES 

COOPERATION  is  the  law  of  life  and  of 
progress.  This  fact  has  brought  about 
some  very  curious  forms  of  cooperation. 
Think  for  a  moment  what  a  country  family  means. 
Man  stands  in  the  center  of  a  group,  gathered  from 
all  quarters  of  the  world,  crossed  and  recrossed  by 
his  skill,  and  constituting  a  solid  alliance,  without 
which  neither  human  progress  nor  animal  evolution 
could  be  secured. 

Not  only  have  our  domestic  animals  become  com- 
panions and  friends,  but  we  are  just  as  dependent  on 
them.  A  cow,  uncared  for,  would  starve  during  the 
first  winter,  but  in  turn  our  whole  civilization  depends 
upon  the  cow's  milk.  Other  races  are  dependent 
on  the  goat,  or  the  horse,  or  the  reindeer,  or  even 
the  dog.  That  seems  to  be  the  most  perfect  civiliza- 
tion that  most  completely  recognizes  animal  friend- 
ship and  most  cordially  apprehends  the  unity  and  in- 
terdependence of  all  life. 

We  are  still  a  long  way  from  having  found  the 
values  of  even  our  commonest  animals  and  the  sim- 
plest plants,  but  we  are  on  the  road  —  a  road  on 
which  Burbank,  with  his  scientific  skill,  is  causing 

152 


OUR  ALLIES  153 

redoubled  speed.  For  the  present  evolution  is  giv- 
ing us  more  new  friends  and  opening  the  way  most 
rapidly  in  the  vegetable  kingdom.  Our  agricultural 
colleges  and  experiment  stations  are  doing  some 
splendid  work  in  the  way  of  improving  breeds  of 
cattle  or  restoring  lost  breeds,  yet  it  is  among  the 
cereals  and  the  fruits  more  than  among  the  meat 
producers  that  they  are  achieving  triumphs. 

You  may  note  that,  whether  we  will  or  no,  our 
whole  race  is  becoming  more  vegetarian  in  diet.  So 
we  shall  find  out,  as  we  go  on  with  this  discussion, 
that  while  we  have  some  wonderful  friends  In  the 
stable  and  kennel,  we  have  just  as  valuable  and  quite 
as  important  In  the  garden  and  orchard.  We  are 
not  only  eating  less  meat,  but  we  shall  eat  less  and 
less  as  the  population  Increases  and  the  vast  cattle 
ranges  are  turned  Into  little  homesteads,  each  with 
Its  garden  of  vegetables.  Its  egg  producers,  and  its 
apples  or  Its  oranges.  Every  country  home  that  Is 
carved  out  in  this  way  can  produce,  and  must  pro- 
duce, nearly  all  Its  own  food,  besides  giving  a  sur- 
plus to  the  general  market.  Our  cities  must  melt 
away  and  spread  out  Into  a  great  suburbanism,  where 
homes  will  not  be  piled  on  top  of  each  other,  but  be 
gardenized  in  a  few  acres,  homeful,  sweet,  whole- 
some, and  the  seat  of  a  grand  alliance,  of  cooperat- 
ing animals  and  plants. 

In  my  judgment,  the  noblest  ally  that  we  have  to- 
day Is  the  cow.  I  say  this  as  a  lover  of  milk;  a  bowl 
of  sweet  milk,  half  filled  with  bread  and  blackberries; 


154     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

a  bowl  of  sour  milk  or  clabber;  of  Dutch  cheese  or 
cottage  cheese,  and  all  other  cheese;  and  knowing 
that  to  young  and  old,  to  sick  or  well,  the  cow  minis- 
ters more  than  do  all  other  creatures.  There  is  a 
lot  of  poetry  as  well  as  prose  associated  with  the  lit- 
tle Jersey,  and  she  helps  to  make  the  small  family 
a  real  family  and  a  happy  one.  But  better  yet  I  like 
the  old-fashioned  cow  —  the  quiet,  clean,  red  old 
Mohawk  Durham.  Gentle  as  a  lamb,  you  could 
milk  her  in  the  open  field  or  ride  her  to  pasture. 

A  Jersey  is  a  baby  —  always,  and  don't  forget  it 
when  you  buy  the  family  cow.  She  will  need  special 
nursing  and  rather  better  care  than  the  ordinary  fam- 
ily will  give.  An  Ayrshire  is  Scotch  to  the  backbone, 
and  she  will  have  her  Highland  fling  in  the  pasture 
and  sometimes  in  the  stables.  She  will  give  a  pailful 
of  milk  every  time,  and  twelve  pounds  of  butter  a 
week  on  decent  feed;  but  give  me  the  cow  of  quiet 
habits,  hardy,  kindly,  steady  in  her  milk  flow  for 
nine  months  of  the  year  and  easily  kept,  without 
studying  balanced  rations  in  bureau  bulletins. 

To  keep  a  cow  on  the  old  style  of  farming  re- 
quired about  ten  acres,  for  in  a  pasture  of  three  or 
four  acres  she  would  tramp  and  foul  two-thirds  of 
her  feed,  while  by  the  modern  system  of  stabling 
and  feeding  with  cut  feed  two  acres  are  abundant. 
If  I  had  just  a  three-acre  lot,  I  would  put  exactly 
two  acres  to  berries  and  vegetables;  then  put  a  fringe 
of  apple  trees,  with  pears  and  plums  and  cherries, 
around  the  whole  of  it,  saving  half  an  acre  for  si- 


OUR  ALLIES  155 

lage  and  half  an  acre  for  alfalfa  and  corn  fodder. 
All  the  clippings  of  the  orchard  and  lawns  or  yards 
count  in  for  cow  feed,  and  when  these  are  kept  up, 
as  they  can  be  on  the  intensive  system,  they  will  go  a 
long  way  to  furnish  food  through  the  whole  summer. 

Half  an  acre  of  alfalfa  will  furnish  three  heavy 
cuttings  of  either  summer  feed  or  hay.  Corn  fodder, 
carefully  drilled  and  hoed  and  standing  eight  feet 
high  before  cut,  will  furnish  an  astounding  weight 
of  food.  Every  ounce  of  it  will  be  eaten  if  only  it 
is  fed  judiciously. 

What  Is  true  of  the  cow  is  equally  true  of  a  horse. 
I  asked  a  drayman  how  much  his  horse  cost  him 
for  feed  annually.  He  replied:  "My  yard  is  all 
alfalfa,  not  much  more  than  half  an  acre,  but  it  gives 
me  about  all  the  hay  I  need  for  six  months."  In 
the  Southern  States  we  resort  to  cassava  for  horses 
or  cows.  Cut  up  half  a  peck  of  this  root  and  sprinkle 
it  with  meal  or  oats  and  you  have  a  splendid  ration. 
One  hill  of  cassava  is  equal  to  five  or  six  hills  of 
corn. 

We  need  to  work  from  this  time  on  more  directly 
for  bovine  intelligence.  The  cow  has  a  deal  of  latent 
brain  power,  so  far  applied  only  to  getting  food 
and  rearing  calves.  Raising  an  Ayrshire  yearling 
some  years  ago,  I  found  her  as  capable  of  compre- 
hending a  joke  as  a;  collie  dog.  She  was  literally 
full  of  fun. 

Forty  fowls  had  their  roost  in  reach  of  her  range, 
and  when  I  would  go  down  to  pet  her  she  would 


156     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

look  me  in  the  eye  with  a  sort  of  Scotch  twinkle, 
and  then  dash  to  the  roost  and  scrape  the  whole  row 
of  hens  off  with  a  rush  and  a  flutter. 

I  may  be  a  Nature  fakir,  but  I  believe  that  every 
one  of  our  domesticated  animals  has  begun  its  ra- 
tional development  and  that  it  is  capable  of  be- 
coming a  companion  for  intelligent  human  beings. 
It  will  pay  to  bring  them  forward  as  fast  as  pos- 
sible. I  never  yet  saw  a  cow  or  horse  that,  with 
right  training  and  treatment,  could  not  help  me  out  of 
difSculties.  Even  an  unruly  cow  will  stand  to  be 
milked  more  readily  by  anyone  who  sings  or  whistles. 

As  for  the  horse,  it  really  is  a  part  of  any  well- 
organized  family  and  deserves  every  bit  of  petting 
that  it  ever  gets.  Secretary  Wilson  is  the  one  Amer- 
ican who  has  done  most,  since  Thomas  Jefferson,  for 
the  development  as  well  as  the  conservation  of  Amer- 
ican resources,  but  he  is  doing  nothing  better  than 
trying  to  rehabilitate  the  Morgan  horse.  I  owned 
a  Morgan  once,  and  she  was  more  than  a  friend. 
She  always  called  me  when  she  wanted  anything,  and 
on  more  than  one  occasion  she  saved  me  from  seri- 
ous trouble. 

Going  up  a  very  steep  hill,  the  coupling  broke 
and  dropped  the  shafts  against  her  legs.  She  had  to 
hold  that  buggy  with  great  care,  or  I,  with  my  wife 
and  baby,  would  have  been  tumbled  over  a  dan- 
gerous precipice.  She  braced  herself  instantly, 
looked  back,  and  whinnied.  I  spoke  to  her  as  I 
would  to  a  human  being,  asking  her  help,  and  if 


OUR  ALLIES  157 

ever  any  two  persons  worked  together,  we  two  coop- 
erated to  the  full  in  getting  that  buggy  to  the  top 
of  the  hill,  where  the  break,  could  be  mended. 

No  mischief  could  occur  about  the  barn,  among 
the  calves  and  other  animals,  without  this  noble  ani- 
mal calling  me  with  unremitting  energy,  and  when  I 
appeared  she  would  whinny  her  satisfaction  and  re- 
turn to  her  diet.  The  Morgan  was  as  near  a  per- 
fect horse  as  America  produced;  has  speed  enough, 
thoroughly  hardy  and  healthy,  but,  with  all  the  rest, 
as  intelligent  as  brave  and  enduring.  At  any  rate, 
when  you  get  your  family  horse  look  out  for  some- 
thing In  the  way  of  capacity  for  Intelligence. 

Asking  an  expert  In  horses  to  help  me  judge  of 
an  animal,  he  stood  directly  In  front  of  her,  looked 
her  In  the  eye,  talked  with  her  as  with  a  human 
being,  then  turned  to  me  and  said,  "  Buy  her,  for 
she  knows  too  much  to  try  to  fool  you."  When 
you  get  your  horse  treat  her  Intelligently.  If 
she  has  a  trick,  you  can  generally  persuade  her  away 
from  It  with  kindness.  However,  a  narrow-headed, 
small-brained,  pig-eyed  horse  is  about  the  meanest 
thing  that  ever  man  had  to  deal  with.  If  the  man 
is  of  the  same  sort,  you  will  get  a  match  that  ex- 
plains some  of  our  country  homes. 

I  have  mentioned  the  collie  dog.  I  wish  eveiy 
one  of  you  could  have  one  of  these  wonderfully 
wise  and  beautiful  companions.  Here  again  It  Is  the 
capacity  for  reasoning  that  makes  the  specific  charm, 
I  do  not  forget  some  of  the  old-fashioned  mongrels, 


158     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

the  mixtures  of  spaniels  and  bulldogs  that  gave  my 
boyhood  many  happy  hours.  With  one  of  these  I 
used  to  skirt  the  hillsides  and  spend  the  whole  day 
in  the  blackberry  glens.  At  lunch  time  he  came  for 
his  share  of  the  cookies  and  drawing  his  lips  care- 
fully up,  he  would  pick  off  and  eat  blackberries  as 
fast  as  I  could  with  my  fingers. 

Yet  of  all  animals  In  America  I  think  we  are  in- 
excusably breeding  more  Incurably  worthless  dogs 
than  of  all  other  animals  put  together.  If  I  were 
going  to  the  country  to  make  a  home  for  the  first  time, 
I  would  surely  have  nothing  of  this  sort  about  me. 
Three-fourths  of  the  whole  canine  stock  should  be 
obliterated  —  especially  the  town  dogs  that  have  no 
reason  for  living  except  to  eat  the  children's  bread. 
They  constitute  the  waste  material  left  by  Nature 
In  her  efforts  to  create  something  worth  while. 
When  you  get  the  mean  all  sifted  out  of  animal 
life  and  the  true,  pure,  honest  and  brave  all  worked 
In,  you  have  a  dog,  and  when  you  have  all  the  good 
worked  out  and  all  the  contemptible  ingrained,  you 
still  have  a  dog. 

I  am  specially  fond  of  good  cats,  and  I  have  known 
a  few  that  were  really  honest  and  noble.  One  of 
them  roused  a  neighbor's  family  and  saved  them  from 
their  burning  house.  White  Face  was  my  friend  In 
college  days  and  he  could  almost  talk  in  English  — 
better  at  least  than  I  could  in  Latin.  He  would 
sometimes  ask  me  If  he  might  play  with  the  chick- 
ens, and  when  I  gave  permission,  he  would  gently 


OUR  ALLIES  159 

roll  the  fluffy  things  over,  very  gently,  then  he  would 
come  back  to  me  purring  satisfaction.  He  would 
never  taste  his  saucer  of  milk  until  his  mate  was  on 
hand  for  a  full  share. 

But  what  Is  one  to  do  about  it?  I  think  the  cat 
was  never  known  that  could  be  entirely  cured  of  de- 
stroying birds?  It  goes  too  far  back  in  their  hered- 
ity —  clear  back  to  the  beginning  of  the  cat  stock. 
I  have  already  told  how  I  house  my  cats  during  the 
whole  season,  giving  them  a  four-room  palace,  but 
no  freedom  to  range  while  the  nestlings  are  unfledged. 
I  advise  you  to  shut  up  your  cats,  or  stop  keeping 
them. 

Birds  we  must  have,  not  only  to  make  the  coun- 
try countrified,  not  only  for  the  company  and  the 
song,  but  because  our  crops  are  dependent  so  largely 
upon  their  help.  The  singers  not  only  sing,  but  they 
eat  vast  quantities  of  insects  and  the  seeds  of  noxious 
weeds  are  devoured  by  the  ton.  So  much  of  this 
help  do  they  extend  that  we  can  afford  to  feed  them 
as  regularly  and  systematically  as  we  do  the  cow 
and  horse.  It  is  those  who  do  nothing  of  this  sort 
who  suffer  most  from  their  depredations. 

I  knew  a  man  who  advocated  killing  robins  to 
save  the  cherries.  I  early  learned  a  better  way: 
plant  more;  plant  enough  for  all  of  us.  When  it 
comes  to  ripe  cherries  I  cover  about  two-thirds  of 
my  trees  with  mosquito  nettings  and  say  to  the  cat- 
birds and  thrushes,  "  You  own  the  rest."  I  do  not 
give  them  these;  I  only  recognize  the  fact  that  they 


i6o     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

belong  fairly  to  my  partners.  Catbirds  are  wise 
enough  soon  to  learn  which  are  their  trees;  as  for 
robin  redbreast,  he  is  never  particular.  In  Florida 
the  mocking  bird  soon  learns  to  keep  close  to  us  and 
pick  up  the  pieces. 

Say  what  you  will,  birds  never  take  any  more  than 
enough  for  sustenance;  they  are  not  wasteful.  If 
you  will  plant  a  hedge  of  Tartarian  honeysuckle  and 
then  a  wind-break  of  mountain  ash,  with  wild  cherries 
alternating,  you  will  find  not  only  a  beautiful  dis- 
play of  flowers  and  berries,  but  the  birds  will  go  there 
instead  of  dining  in  your  garden.  Where  you  have 
large  fields  of  raspberries  and  currants,  bird  intrusion 
is  not  noticeable. 

Coax  your  neighbors  to  plant  —  giving  them  trees 
and  bushes.  Plant  the  glens  and  the  woods  and 
the  forest  edges  with  bird  feed.  My  father  went 
still  further,  for  he  would  graft  the  wild  cherry  trees 
with  choice  sorts,  "  to  give  the  birds  better  cherries." 
One  of  our  best  authorities  notes  the  mulberry  as  a 
good  tree  to  grow  wild,  or  along  the  streets,  to  call 
the  birds  from  cultivated  fruits. 

Professor  Beal,  of  the  Michigan  Agricultural  Col- 
lege, specifies  among  other  trees  and  bushes,  the  shad- 
berry, and  for  winter  food  he  would  have  on  hand 
the  bittersweet,  the  pokeberry,  the  bayberry,  the  hack- 
berry,  and  plenty  of  mountain-ash  trees.  All  of 
these  are  easily  found  from  New  England  to  the 
Pacific  coast,  and  I  would  lay  special  emphasis 
on  growing  more  mountain-ash  trees.     A  single  tree 


OUR  ALLIES  i6i 

will  feed  flock  after  flock  of  birds  of  passage,  all 
through  the  later  autumn. 

This  matter  of  winter  food  must  not  be  passed 
by  lightly,  for  we  can  easily  induce  a  large  number 
of  birds  to  spend  the  coldest  months  around  our 
Northern  homes.  When  they  are  not  picking  at  the 
bones  which  we  hang  for  them  outside  our  windows, 
they  will  destroy  myriads  of  the  eggs  of  vermin, 
hidden  under  the  bark  of  our  fruit  trees. 

A  very  careful  observer  tells  us  that  a  single  pair 
of  house  wrens  will  dispose  of  at  least  one  thousand 
insects  every  day  and  that  other  birds  serve  us  in 
about  the  same  ratio.  I  want  you  to  see  this  thing 
in  its  clearest  light,  as  a  matter  of  domestic  economy 
to  cultivate  bird  friendship.  We  must  gather  them 
about  us  and  protect  them,  make  our  homes  as  pleas- 
ant to  them  as  to  ourselves.  Any  effort  in  this  di- 
rection will  be  quickly  appreciated,  and  the  word  will 
pass  around  among  the  tribes,  until  the  wilder  sorts 
come  in  and  domesticate  themselves. 

My  Clinton  home  is  populous  with  not  only  robins 
and  catbirds,  but  grosbeaks  and  indigo  birds,  and 
purple  finches  and  tanagers,  and  of  late  the  wood 
thrush  and  the  Wilson's  thrush  have  come  to  nest 
close  by  my  house  —  singing  in  the  shrubbery,  with 
those  long,  silvery,  echoing  notes  that  a  few  years 
ago  were  heard  only  from  the  distant  forest. 

There  are,  however,  two  sides  to  this  question,  and 
I  have  fairly  developed  the  opposite  side  in  my  chap- 
ter on  Our  Rivals.     Some  of  my  friends  insist  that 


1 62     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

the  red  squirrel  and  the  crow  and  the  hawk  can  also 
be  made  allies,  but  when  I  find  a  crow  on  the  edge 
of  a  robin's  nest,  with  one  of  the  young  birds  in 
his  beak,  I  have  no  inclination  to  cultivate  his  ac- 
quaintance. The  red  squirrel  Is  even  worse,  and 
when  I  hear  an  outcry  among  my  bluebirds  and  tan- 
agers  I  am  almost  certain  that  one  of  these  wicked 
whisking  beauties  is  somewhere  among  my  trees.  Say 
what  you  will  for  him,  he  lacks  a  conscience,  lives 
for  himself  alone,  and  preys  on  anything  that  he 
can  eat.  He  makes  no  friendships  and  recognizes 
no  alliances. 

This  is  true  also  of  the  English  sparrow,  so  far 
as  I  can  observe.  A  robin  has  friends  and  so  have 
all  the  song  birds.  They  will  join  forces  when  nec- 
essary and  carry  on  war  together.  You  never  saw 
any  other  bird  aid  a  crow,  or  help  a  hawk,  or  ex- 
press any  sympathy  for  an  English  sparrow,  but  you 
may  easily  see  a  flock  of  half  a  dozen  sorts  of  birds, 
led  by  a  king  bird,  in  hot  chase  after  a  marauding 
crow. 

Some  birds,  I  agree,  stand  about  midway  and  can 
hardly  be  reckoned  as  strictly  allies  or  strictly  rivals. 
In  Florida  I  am  specially  interested  In  the  shrike,  a 
handsomely  built,  natty  fellow,  always  ready  to  as- 
sert himself  in  a  scrimmage  with  other  birds.  He 
comes  close  to  you,  looks  you  in  the  eye  from  the 
top  of  a  persimmon  bush,  and  suddenly  jumps  for 
a  grasshopper  or  a  grub.  Nothing  escapes  his  keen 
vision,  and  whatever  he  does  not  need  for  immediate 


OUR  ALLIES  163 

use  he  spikes  on  a  thorn  bush  or  an  orange  tree,  or 
makes  use  of  the  barbs  of  your  wire  fence.  In  this 
way  I  find  grasshoppers  and  grubs  and  crickets  and 
even  whole  frogs  among  his  stora'ges  —  grubs  as 
big  as  your  thumb,  and  I  am  grateful  for  his  help 
in  my  garden.  But  that  he  breaks  up  some  birds' 
nests  I  cannot  deny. 

In  the  North  I  feel  somewhat  the  same  way  about 
the  owl;  a  screechy  affair,  associated  with  all  sorts 
of  superstitious  notions  and  not  unacquainted  with 
chicken  flesh.  Yet  I  believe  the  owls,  as  a  rule,  are 
fairly  classed  as  helpers,  for  there  is  a  certain  class 
of  marauding  vermin  at  night  that  only  the  owl  can 
spy  out  and  destroy.  The  government  bulletins  in- 
sist that  some  of  the  hawks  should  be  encouraged, 
for  they  surely  do  catch  mice  and  occasionally  may 
be  found  in  some  honest  occupation,  but  I  have  never 
met  a  hawk  that  at  the  time  was  not  up  to  mischief 
—  either  striking  his  ugly  claws  into  my  chickens,  or 
sailing  around  the  sky  in  geometric  circles  just  over 
the  chicken  yard. 

I  like  hens;  I  do  not  wish  to  live  where  I  can- 
not hear  roosters  crowing  at  daybreak.  In  fact,  they 
crow  long  before  that,  only  most  people  do  not  know 
It.  Just  as  the  morning  curtain  Is  being  drawn  slowly 
up  It  Is  fine  to  hear  "  Good  morning  "  called  out 
from  a  whole  valley  full  of  farmyards.  It  is  a 
curious  habit  that  chanticleer  has,  but  It  is  full  of 
good  cheer  and  associated  with  pleasant  memories 
for  many  of  us. 


1 64     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

About  one  hen  out  of  every  flock  of  thirty  will 
display  some  sort  of  unusual  intelligence,  if  you  give 
her  a  chance.  One  of  these  wise  ones,  of  Plymouth 
Rock  lineage,  adopted  me  in  my  strolls  about  the 
orchard  and  garden,  walking  by  my  side  everywhere 
and  continually  prattling  in  a  language  of  mixed  de- 
sire and  affection.  She  knew  right  well  that  my 
pockets  frequently  held  corn,  and  if  I  sat  down  on 
a  stone  she  ate  from  my  hands,  eloquently  expressing 
her  gratitude. 

As  egg  producer  the  hen  has  come  to  be  one  of 
the  greatest  factors  in  American  economics.  As  cat- 
tle ranges  disappear,  our  food  is  essentially  narrowed 
and  the  hencoop  will  be  the  only  relief  for  the  great 
mass  of  country  home-makers.  Perhaps  we  may  add 
to  the  coop  a  rabbit  warren,  and  so  while  increasing 
our  meat  supply,  get  rid  of  a  troublesome  pest.  Any- 
one can  have  a  supply  of  eggs  at  small  cost,  but  the 
present  price  is  revolutionary. 

As  for  a  pig,  why  not,  if  one  gives  him  a  chance 
to  keep  himself  clean?  A  hog  with  half  a  chance  is 
cleaner  than  a  cow  —  with  equal  chances.  Professor 
Shaler  was  a  specially  good  student  of  Nature,  and 
he  insisted  that  our  pigs  are  among  the  most  intelli- 
gent of  our  domestic  animals.  I  have  lived  for  a  few 
years  among  the  razorbacks  of  Florida,  and  I  assure 
you  that  for  keeping  posted  on  all  horticultural  mat- 
ters he  is  the  beat.  He  knows  every  sweet-potato 
patch  within  five  miles  of  his  home,  and  he  can  live 
well  with  his  family  where  human  folk  will  starve. 


OUR  ALLIES  165 

Alas,  for  the  rarity  of  human  charity,  we  have  by  law 
at  last  abolished  him!  In  Florida  he  will  hence- 
forth have  no  more  rights  than  common  folk. 

Around  the  farmhouse  there  is  always  a  certain 
measure  of  waste,  and  it  is  the  judicious  use  of  this 
waste  that  makes  the  difference  between  success  and 
failure.  Suppose  It  to  be  divided  in  this  way:  to 
fatten  one  pig,  to  feed  twenty  hens,  and  a  warren 
of  rabbits,  while  the  cow  gets  a  pail  of  slops  at  night 
—  making  a  grand  return  in  the  way  of  milk  for  the 
pig  and  for  the  hens.  A  pan  of  sour  milk  Is  one 
of  the  luxuries  for  the  chicken  yard. 

Bees  always  call  out  my  enthusiasm,  because  from 
fifteen  hives  I  am  accustomed  to  take  up  nearly  a 
thousand  pounds  of  honey  in  a  year.  This  varies 
somewhat  according  to  the  flora  of  the  year,  but  it  Is 
always  a  fine  addition  to  the  product  of  the  farm 
or  country  home.  You  can  easily  use  a  hundred 
pounds  In  your  family,  taking  the  less  perfect  cakes, 
while  you  sell  five  or  six  hundred  pounds  or  more  at 
a  welcome  profit. 

However,  one  must  remember  that  as  with  hens 
it  Is  possible  to  have  too  many.  Fifteen  or  twenty 
hens  are  enough  for  a  common  country  home  of  a  few 
acres,  and  from  ten  to  twenty  hives  of  bees  must  be 
the  limit  for  the  same  homestead.  If  you  undertake 
one  hundred  hives,  you  must  make  a  specialty  of  bee- 
keeping and  bee-feeding.  What  you  want  Is  just 
about  that  number  of  colonies  that  can  be  fed  from 
your  own  raspberries  and  lindens  and  mountain  ash 


1 66     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

and  apple  blossoms,  and  the  golden  rods  along  the 
creeks,  adding  alfalfa  wherever  it  can  be  found  on 
the  adjacent  farms. 

If  you  are  a  grower  of  small  fruits,  especially  rasp- 
berries, you  may  count  that  the  bees  will  make  great 
use  of  your  garden.  A  grove  of  lindens  or  basswoods 
should  be  planted  somewhere  about  every  large  farm, 
and  a  few  trees  should  be  worked  in  on  a  small  place. 
It  is  a  grand  street  tree,  and  we  might  just  as  well 
have  a  vast  amount  of  honey-producing  flowers  as 
well  as  shade  from  our  highways. 

The  bee  has  a  marked  degree  of  attachment  for 
some  persons  and  hate  for  others.  I  have  a  hired 
man  who  cannot  go  near  the  hives,  and  the  bees  will 
even  hunt  him  out  when  far  away  in  the  fields  and 
will  chase  him  flying  to  shelter.  When  my  father 
had  a  swarm  to  deliver  I  have  seen  him  let  them  light 
all  over  his  hand  and  arm,  up  to  his  shoulder;  then 
after  carrying  them  for  a  quarter  of  a  mile,  he  laugh- 
ingly brushed  them  off  into  a  hive.  They  were 
fond  of  him.  They  are  not  fond  of  me  —  not  at 
least  to  that  extent. 

This  passionate  liking  and  hating  runs  through 
the  whole  animal  kingdom  and  must  be  taken  account 
of  while  seeking  out  allies.  Dogs  never  go  near 
some  people.  I  have  seen  a  cat  become  so  attached 
to  a  human  friend  that  after  separation  it  mourned 
for  weeks. 

Just  how   far  we  can  go  in  developing  this  in- 


OUR  ALLIES  167 

telllgence,  or  even  letting  It  loose  in  speech,  I  do 
not  know,  but  there  surely  is  a  great  field  be- 
fore us.  Our  versatile  friend,  John  Burroughs,  has 
argued  strongly,  almost  vehemently,  that  animals  can- 
not reason.  My  own  experience,  running  over  more 
than  half  a  hundred  years  of  joyous  companionship, 
convinces  me  that  all  our  domestic  animals  can  think 
and  think  to  a  purpose. 

The  story  of  our  allies  is  not  by  any  means  told 
by  recounting  the  domestic  animals  that  live  with 
us.  The  French  town  authorities  post  village  bul- 
letin boards,  for  public  Instruction.  One  of  these 
reads:  "Hedgehog;  lives  upon  mice,  snails,  and 
wireworms  —  do  not  kill  a  hedgehog.  Toad;  helps 
agriculture,  killing  twenty  to  thirty  Insects  every  hour. 
Do  not  kill  a  toad.  Cockchafer;  deadly  enemy  to 
the  farmer;  lays  one  hundred  eggs  at  a  time.  Kill 
the  cockchafer."  It  would  be  a  good  Idea  for  our 
own  government  to  post  bulletins  of  this  sort,  In- 
stead of  printing  so  many  for  circulation. 

In  the  South  most  of  the  snakes  are  of  great 
value,  and  that  is  relatively  true  everywhere.  The 
black  snake,  a  handsome  fellow.  Is  estimated  to  be 
worth  ten  dollars  a  year  to  destroy  mice  and  gophers. 
The  bull  snake  and  garter  snake  destroy  Insects  and 
rodents,  without  themselves  hurting  the  garden.  In 
my  Clinton  ground  we  have  so  long  protected  the 
little  garter  snake  that  he  suns  himself  on  the  compost 
piles  without  fearing  us  at  all.     Why  not?     Why 


1 68     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

carry  a  spite,  because  a  serpent  is  said  to  have  tempted 
Eve?  Was  it  not  a  fair  match?  Poisonous  snakes 
are  nearly  as  rare  as  those  that  talk. 

One  of  Darwin's  most  interesting  essays  concerns 
the  value  of  the  angleworm.  It  serves  to  plow  up 
the  farmer's  soil,  reaching  a  depth  that  his  best  sub- 
soilers  cannot  touch.  It  is  one  of  Nature's  prettiest 
methods  of  laughing  at  our  inventions.  The  worms 
aerate  the  soil  and  make  room  for  both  water  and 
roots.  In  Florida  the  gopher,  which  is  a  ground 
squirrel  and  a  pest  in  most  ways,  does  a  vast  amount 
of  this  subsolling.  I  inquire  at  his  mound  concern- 
ing what  lies  underneath  that  which  is  reached  by  my 
plowshare.  Getting  the  air  into  the  soil  is,  after  all, 
our  most  important  agricultural  work. 

Overhead  and  everywhere  about  the  Southern 
States,  you  see  a  bird  of  the  condor  sort,  a  distress- 
fully unfinished  creature,  that  the  laws  forbid  you 
to  kill.  He  is  a  most  important  public  scavenger  and 
invaluable  where  range  cattle  are  tolerated  and  not 
a  few  cows  die  in  their  wild  pasturage.  Only  for 
this  turkey  buzzard  the  air  would  be  tainted  all  the 
year  through. 

Do  not  kill  the  lady  beetles,  for  the  whole  class 
of  them  do  nothing  else  but  work  for  your  advantage. 
Boys  call  them  carriage  bugs  and  seldom  know  their 
importance  in  the  orchard.  Daddy  longlegs  is  an- 
other of  our  friends,  which  we  should  leave  to  his 
beneficent  work  of  destroying  scale  and  other  in- 
sects. 


OUR  ALLIES  169 

Bad  name  as  the  house  fly  carries,  the  mosquito 
has  a  worse,  and  it  is  the  fashion  just  now  to  im- 
agine that  we  have  solved  all  our  hygienic  difficulties 
by  publishing  recipes  for  killing  these  pests.  Yet 
It  is  doubtful  if  the  world  could  be  inhabited  long 
by  human  beings  without  these  insects  to  transform 
decay  into  living  matter.  Their  uncountable  millions 
are  busy  at  this  service;  their  infernal  thousands 
have  degenerated  into  bloodsuckers  and  poison  car- 
riers. I  should  hardly  wish  to  call  them  allies,  but 
the  good  done  by  them  must  not  be  forgotten. 

The  house  fly  breeds  almost  wholly  in  our  stables, 
and  we  can  forestall  this  by  keeping  clean  stables 
and  barnyards.  A  dirty  stable  near  a  house  breeds 
such  swarms  as  are  intolerable,  and  a  high  wind  for 
two  or  three  days  will  carry  a  cloud  of  these  flies 
half  a  mile.  Mosquitoes  enough  to  make  a  whole 
neighborhood  miserable  will  breed  in  a  single  sink 
hole  in  a  single  day.  Kerosene  sprinkled  about  our 
damp  places  once  a  week  and  sprayed  over  our  stable 
walls  daily  will  prevent  the  development  of  both  flies 
and  mosquitoes. 

There  Is  no  reason  nor  excuse  for  neglecting  the 
comfort  of  our  domestic  animals.  A  dirty  stable  be- 
comes a  menace  to  the  community  as  well  as  the 
household  and  Is  an  Insult  to  "  Him  In  whom  we  live 
and  move  and  have  our  being."  It  Is  an  element 
of  degeneration  —  debasing  animals  and  owners  to- 
gether. I  like  better  the  Dutch  plan  of  costlier 
stables  and  cheaper  houses. 


170     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

It  is  hardly  just  that  we  lay  so  much  emphasis 
on  animal  loyalty  and  forget  what  the  plant  world 
has  done  and  is  doing  for  us  and  with  us.  I  hold  an 
apple  in  my  hand,  gold  on  one  side  and  crimson 
blushes  on  the  other.  I  know  that  inside  it  is  a  mass 
of  cells,  each  filled  with  nectar  fit  for  a  Jovian  assem- 
bly. Was  it  an  apple  that  caused  the  Trojan  war? 
Well  it  might,  for  Nature,  in  tens  of  millions  of  years, 
has  brought  about  nothing  nobler  than  a  Northern 
Spy  —  unless  it  be  a  Golden  Pippin,  or  a  Jonathan, 
or  a  King  David.  Nothing  has  entered  more  into 
our  human  progress  than  the  apple  and  its  cousins, 
the  pear  and  the  cherry.  Now  we  have  also  the 
orange,  and  it  will  soon  be  everybody's  fruit,  and 
the  persimmon,  so  long  in  disgrace,  will  very  shortly 
become  the  third  in  the  trinity. 

This  business  of  cooperation  with  animals  and 
birds  and  plants  is  not  half  understood.  Except 
for  four  families  of  plants,  mammals,  including  man, 
could  not  continue  to  exist,  certainly  could  not  make 
progressive  evolution.  These  four  are  the  Rose, 
the  Cereal,  the  Solanum,  and  the  Palm.  From  the 
first  of  these  we  get  nearly  all  our  common  fruits, 
from  apples  to  strawberries;  from  the  second  we 
get  rye  and  wheat  for  our  bread,  rice  and  oats  and 
corn  for  both  ourselves  and  our  domestic  animals; 
from  the  third  we  get  the  greatest  of  all  esculent 
roots,  the  potato,  as  well  as  the  tomato  and  tobacco; 
while  from  the  palm  family  we  have  not  less  than 
one  thousand  varieties  of  useful  fruits  and  fibers. 


OUR  ALLIES  171 

This  does  not  end  the  story,  however,  for  without 
the  trees  and  the  flowers  of  the  Rose  and  the  Palm 
families  we  should  lose  our  poetry  as  surely  as  our 
food.  It  is  a  wonderful  cooperation,  looked  at  from 
any  standpoint  we  please.  With  intelligent  and  hu- 
man leadership  on  our  part,  the  animal  and  the  vege- 
table kingdoms  alike  become  tributary  to  our  welfare. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

IN  OUR  ORCHARDS 

WORDS  grow  as  well  as  things.  The  word 
orchard  was  originally  hortyard,  that  is 
horticulture  yard,  and  at  first  it  only  re- 
ferred to  herbs,  for  our  early  Saxon  ancestors  knew 
no  more  about  apple  yards  than  they  did  about 
orange  yards.  The  garden  yard  has  gradually  be- 
come a  tree  yard,  including  apples,  pears,  plums, 
and  cherries,  and  similar  fruits,  in  the  North;  in  the 
South  oranges,  grapefruit,  figs,  loquats,  and  many 
other  new  sorts. 

What  the  orchard  will  be  five  hundred  or  a  thou- 
sand years  hence  who  can  tell?  We  are  almost  cer- 
tain to  get  the  orange,  by  selection,  hardy  enough  to 
fruit  in  Massachusetts,  while  we  are  already  getting 
apples  pretty  well  down  toward  the  tropics.  This 
does  not  cover  the  whole  story,  for  we  are  surely  go- 
ing to  have  a  lot  of  new  fruits,  some  of  them  hunted 
up  from  the  wilds  of  Nature  and  others  created  by 
the  Burbanks  and  Munsons. 

It  took  Nature  thousands  of  years  to  get  the  glori- 
ous apple  tree  made  up  from  a  little  potentilla  origin, 
swinging  with  pippins  and  greenings,  and  a  free 
gift  to  every  country  home.     Sweetest  memories  of 

172 


IN  OUR  ORCHARDS  173 

life  cluster  about  the  apple  orchards.  It  is  a  wonder- 
ful tree  standing  alone  on  the  hillside,  haunted  by 
boys  and  a  favorite  place  for  robins'  nests,  but  an 
orchard  of  apple  trees,  standing  in  long  rows  all  over 
the  slope  that  looks  down  into  a  valley  full  of  homes 
is  a  gift  surpassing  all  other  for  human  ownership. 

Peach  trees  bear  only  half  a  dozen  good  crops,  but 
the  apple  orchard  is  good  for  a  hundred  years.  I 
have  two  trees  out  of  an  orchard  that  was  planted 
one  hundred  and  twenty  years  ago,  and  they  are  still 
bearing  their  annual  loads  of  good  will.  I  do  not 
doubt  but  that,  with  rational  care  and  apple  sense 
given  to  an  orchard  through  its  whole  life,  it  might 
be  In  bearing  for  a  full  two  hundred  years  —  maybe 
longer.  The  pear  Is  even  more  enduring  than  the 
apple,  for  there  are  still  growing  some  old  Flemish 
pears,  near  Monroe,  Michigan,  that  were  planted 
before  Philadelphia  was  founded  by  William  Penn. 

Select  apples  have  been  selling  for  five  dollars  a 
barrel  in  the  orchard.  In  the  spring  of  1908  they 
went  up  to  ten  dollars  In  the  New  York  markets. 
The  Increase  of  consumption  Is  really  enormous  and 
accounts  In  some  degree  for  the  swollen  prices,  but 
we  cannot  escape  the  conviction  that  every  country 
home-maker  should  grow  his  own  apples  and  have 
a  small  surplus  for  market.  When  this  Is  done  the 
price  will  be  a  just  one  for  both  producer  and  con- 
sumer. 

We  Have  now  catalogued  over  two  thousand  sorts 
of  apples  that  are  worth  discussing.     I  grow  eighty 


174     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

of  these,  and  a  good  market  requires  about  ten  or 
twenty  for  complete  succession.  Your  little  home  lot 
will  be  complete  with  a  dozen  varieties,  reaching 
through  the  whole  season.  With  these,  carefully 
studied  as  to  planting,  pruning,  and  storing,  you  will 
have  a  wonderful  addition  to  your  food  and  a  sur- 
plus for  sale. 

It  is  the  diameter  and  not  the  height  that  deter- 
mines the  value  of  a  young  apple  tree.  For  planting 
it  should  stand  about  five  or  six  feet  after  It  is  dug 
and  four  or  five  feet  after  planting.  No  possible 
price  should  tempt  you  to  plant  a  lot  of  trees  no 
larger  around  than  your  finger.  If  such  trees  are 
ever  received,  cut  them  down  within  three  or  four 
inches  of  the  scion ;  then  let  new  shoots  start,  and  In 
this  way  you  can  make  a  new  trunk,  possibly  one 
that  will  be  worth  the  while. 

Having  got  your  trees,  take  them  from  the  box 
or  bale  at  once  and  trim  them  to  very  nearly  bare 
poles.  If  you  have  a  stream  near  by.  It  will  do  no 
harm  to  Immerse  the  whole  tree  for  an  hour  or  more. 
It  Is  better  to  make  a  puddle  in  which  the  roots 
may  lie  over  night,  or  for  a  few  hours.  If  not  to  be 
planted  very  speedily,  let  the  trees  be  heeled  In,  that 
is  the  roots  and  part  of  the  trunks  burled  In  moist, 
but  by  no  means  wet,  soil.  These  dormant  trees 
must  not  be  so  rapidly  supplied  with  water  as  to 
start  root  growth  before  they  are  set  in  the  orchard. 
It  Is  sometimes  advisable  to  buy  your  trees  In  the 


IN  OUR  ORCHARDS  175 

fall,  heel  them  in  over  winter,  and  plant  them  just 
as  soon  as  the  ground  is  in  good  condition  in  the 
spring. 

The  choice  between  spring  and  fall  for  planting 
depends  upon  the  nature  of  your  soil.  If  sticky  clay, 
liable  to  be  sodden  or  lumpy,  I  would  plant  in  the 
spring,  but  not  until  the  fields  are  in  good  condition. 
You  might  as  well  burn  a  tree  as  to  plant  it  in  mud. 
If  planted  in  the  autumn,  stake  the  trees  and  tie  them 
with  basting  or  coarse  twine  so  firmly  that  they 
cannot  be  twisted  about  by  the  winter  winds.  What 
we  want  is  an  easy  and  quick  start  of  the  buds,  but 
we  want  first  a  good  start  of  the  root  system. 

It  hardly  needs  to  be  said  that  nearly  all  apple 
trees  prefer  clay  soil  to  sand,  yet  a  few  sorts,  like 
the  Winesap  and  Jonathan,  prefer  light  soils.  The 
size  of  the  apple  and  the  quality  alike  depend  upon 
having  the  soil  that  suits,  together  with  plenty  of 
sunshine.  I  advise  you  to  plant  your  apple  trees 
where  they  can  have  the  best  of  your  acres  and  plenty 
of  room. 

Three  things  are  of  vital  importance  at  this  point. 
The  first  is  good  drainage.  In  most  of  our  clay 
soils  I  would  use  up  the  stones  by  creating  ditches 
every  fifty  feet.  If  tile  drains  are  used,  they  can 
be  easily  arranged  for  irrigation  as  well  as  drainage. 
Dry  tillage  means  only  a  way  of  preventing  water 
from  evaporating  and  of  gathering  water  from  the 
air  without  rain.     This  is  done  by  keeping  the  sur- 


176     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

face  stirred  daily,  a  process  that  creates  a  soil  stratum 
which  will  absorb  moisture  from  the  air,  while  it  does 
not  transmit  it  from  below. 

The  second  point  to  consider  is  that  there  is  no 
better  way  of  killing  fruit  trees  than  to  put  barn- 
yard manure  around  the  roots.  You  may  top  dress 
with  some  of  this  material,  but  beware  about  using 
it  in  the  hole  that  you  have  dug.  Do  not  get  in 
a  hurry  to  force  growth.  If  you  can  get  good  roots 
during  the  first  year  or  two,  you  can  get  along  with 
very  little  top  growth. 

The  third  point  in  planting  is  to  mulch  your  trees, 
every  one  of  them,  just  as  soon  as  planted.  This 
mulch  may  be  made  of  any  porous  stuff  that  you 
happen  to  have  about,  coal  ashes  or  tan  bark  or  weeds 
or  autumn  leaves  —  anything  but  material  that  mice 
will  be  likely  to  bed  in.  Coal  ashes,  on  the  whole, 
are  the  best  material  that  we  have  handy,  and  it  is 
also  good  when  thrown  upon  the  soil  and  mixed  in, 
lightening  the  heavy  clay  which  dominates  in  many 
apple  sections.  I  have  seen  city  gardens  made  very 
productive  by  working  coal  ashes  into  the  solid  soil. 
Weeds  cannot  be  more  efficiently  set  on  the  road  to 
being  useful  than  as  mulch.  Make  the  mulch  at 
least  three  or  four  inches  thick,  and  if  of  weeds  or 
of  stuff  that  will  blow  away,  toss  a  few  shovels  full 
of  soil  on  top. 

In  the  South  we  are  obliged  to  mulch  very  heavily 
against  the  heat.  You  will  find  that  I  am  not  laying 
too  much  stress  on  this  point,  for  if  a  dry  time  sets 


IN  OUR  ORCHARDS  177 

in  after  your  planting,  you  will  scarcely  keep  your 
trees  alive  without  daily  watering,  and  even  this  will 
not  compensate  for  the  lack  of  protection  to  the 
roots. 

Trimming  large  limbs  from  any  tree  is  the  be- 
ginning of  death,  and  it  should  never  be  practiced 
unless  absolutely  necessary.  To  avoid  this,  we  want 
to  know  when  we  plant  just  about  how  high  up  we 
will  need  the  limbs  to  be  removed  when  the  tree  is 
grown.  An  orchard  tree,  as  a  rule,  should  be  headed 
rather  low  than  rather  high.  The  old-fashioned  apple 
tree  was  grafted  at  eight  or  ten  feet,  on  seedling 
stock;  as  a  consequence,  most  of  the  trees  were  high 
to  the  first  limbs  and  it  took  a  forty-foot  ladder 
to  reach  the  top. 

Set  your  apple  trees  nearly  or  quite  forty  feet 
apart,  even  forty-five,  if  planting  some  of  the  spread- 
ing varieties,  like  Spitzenburg,  Northern  Spy,  and 
Greening.  If  you  are  setting  only  a  few  trees  for 
a  quiet  home,  they  may  stand  a  little  closer.  The 
intent  must  be  not  to  let  the  trees,  when  full  grown, 
interlock,  or  very  much  shade  each  other,  for  if 
this  occurs  the  fruit  is  robbed  of  its  sunshine  and 
light,  never  becoming  richly  sweet  and  always  liable 
to  be  affected  by  fungus.  A  Rhode  Island  Greening 
grown  in  the  shade  is  hardly  fit  for  cider,  but  grown 
in  the  sun  is  full  of  gold  and  sweetness.  A  Pound 
Sweet  standing  in  a  close  orchard  Is  an  utterly  worth- 
less apple,  but  a  Pound  Sweet  grown  on  an  open  lawn 
is  delicious. 


1 78     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

Other  fruit  trees  in  the  orchard  can  be  spaced  ac- 
cording to  your  judgment;  peaches  will  need  fifteen 
feet  and  pears  from  fifteen  to  twenty-five,  but  a  few 
varieties  demand  about  as  much  space  as  apple  trees. 
The  Seckel  is  one  of  the  small  growers,  the  Bartlett 
a  medium,  while  the  Rostiezer  is  liable  to  spread  its 
limbs  quite  widely.  Plums  are  fond  of  company,  and 
most  varieties  do  better  set  rather  close  together.  It 
is  a  short-lived  tree  as  a  rule  and  needs  very  frequent 
renewing.  The  new  Burbank  hybrids  and  the  Japa- 
nese sorts  require  about  fifteen  feet.  Cherries  take 
about  the  same  space,  but  the  sweet  cherries  will  do 
better  if  given  twenty  feet. 

It  is  a  secret,  not  known  by  even  most  orchardists, 
that  if  trees  are  headed  very  low  they  will  fruit 
earlier  than  if  headed  higher.  This,  of  course,  pre- 
vents plowing  and  cultivating  an  orchard,  but  it  gives 
you  quick  returns  for  your  money.  A  pear  tree 
headed  six  or  eight  feet  high  will  demand  eight  or 
ten  years  to  do  much  in  the  way  of  fruit-bearing,  but  if 
headed  three  or  four  feet  from  the  ground  it  will  give 
you  good  returns  in  three  years.  Some  of  the  apples 
will  respond  quite  liberally  in  the  same  way.  Peaches 
should  always  be  headed  low  and  plums  will  be  none 
the  worse  for  it. 

There  are  two  ways  whereby  a  very  small  country 
home  may  increase  its  varieties  of  fruit  without 
crowding.  In  the  first  place,  graft  two  or  three 
varieties  on  the  same  tree;  for  that  matter  you  may 
have  every  large  limb  a  distinct  sort  —  but  this  I 


IN  OUR  ORCHARDS  179 

do  not  recommend.  You  may  at  least  have  your 
Astrachan  and  your  King  David  on  the  same  stock, 
also  the  Spitzenburg  and  Greening.  Select  sorts  that 
have  similar  style  of  growth.  Planting  dwarf  trees 
is  another  way  of  getting  a  good  supply  of  fruit  from 
a  small  area.  Dwarf  apples  make  very  beautiful 
trees,  giving  good  fruit,  and  are  easily  picked. 

If  you  happen  to  have  bought  an  old  orchard,  or 
the  relics  of  one,  do  not  be  too  hasty  in  cuttting  it 
down.  A  little  care  in  the  removal  of  dead  wood 
and  suckers  will  often  restore  an  old  tree  to  consider- 
able vigor  and  capacity  for  bearing. 

Now  about  trimming;  a  good  deal  about  this  will 
come  in  at  another  place,  and  all  I  intend  to  say  now 
is  that,  from  the  moment  the  tree  is  set  in  the  ground, 
It  will  want  watching  and  guidance.  Most  of  the 
early  trimming,  that  is,  for  a  year  or  two,  can  be 
done  with  the  thumb  nail,  or  a  small  pocket  knife. 
Do  not  let  any  buds  start  to  grow  which  will  not 
place  a  limb  just  where  you  want  It,  and  you  want 
the  limbs,  of  course,  to  be  fairly  distributed  about 
the  trunk.  When  you  cut  back  a  shoot  that  you 
wish  to  grow  farther,  leave  the  last  bud  pointing  in 
the  direction  you  wish  It  to  grow.  If  two  buds  start 
close  together,  remove  the  weaker  one.  In  the  fall, 
after  growth  has  stopped,  cut  back  the  strong  shoots 
about  one-half,  leaving  the  last  bud  as  I  directed  — 
that  is,  pointing  outward. 

Trees  are  exactly  like  animals  about  feeding ;  they 
must  have  enough  to  eat  or  they  will  lose  their  ability 


i8o     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

to  produce  fruit  of  the  best  sort.  A  half-starved 
tree  gives  you  half-developed  fruit;  the  wood  be- 
comes knobby  and  the  bark  adheres  too  tightly. 
However,  judgment  must  be  used  in  feeding,  or 
plant  dyspepsia  sets  in.  Very  few  trees  will  endure 
rank  manure,  and  a  great  many  of  them  protest 
against  barn  manure  at  all.  Some  of  them  prefer 
muck  and  lime.  Compost  all  the  food,  then  place 
it  about  the  roots  and  later  plow  It  under.  The  use 
of  lime  Is  not  as  a  direct  manurial  agent,  but  to  help 
decompose  coarse  food  and  make  it  fit  for  the  plant 
to  receive  and  digest. 

With  my  present  experience,  if  I  were  going  Into 
the  country  to  make  a  home,  I  should  want  the  fol- 
lowing list  of  apples:  for  early  use  I  would  select 
the  Red  Astrachan,  Primate,  Yellow  Transparent, 
and  Williams  Favorite;  for  later  ripening  through 
the  fall  months  I  would  not  feel  contented  without 
Sherwood's  Favorite,  Wealthy,  Gravenstein,  Pound 
Sweet,  and  Maiden's  Blush;  then  for  winter  I  should 
make  sure  of  Baldwin,  Danchy's  Sweet,  Delicious, 
Hubbardston,  Mcintosh,  Mother,  Northern  Spy, 
Rhode  Island  Greening,  Stayman's  Winesap,  Wag- 
ener,  and  King  David;  Jonathan  and  Grimes  Golden 
I  add  for  special  localities,  like  western  Virginia  and 
Colorado,  where  they  are  ideal.  King  and  Newtown 
Pippin  are  superb  but  too  exacting  In  their  demands 
for  general  culture. 

Now  let  me  reduce  this  list  to  fit  It  to  a  very  small 
home.     Take  Astrachan   and  Transparent  for  one 


Photograpli  by  Porch. 
TEACH   THE   CHILDREN  TO   WORK   WITH   HANDS   AND   BRAIN 


IN  OUR  ORCHARDS  i8i 

tree,  Gravenstein  and  Wealthy  for  a  second,  and 
Sherwood's  Favorite  with  Maiden's  Blush  for  a 
third.  Mcintosh  should  have  a  whole  tree,  Hub- 
bardston  another,  and  Northern  Spy  a  third.  Wine- 
sap  and  Wagener  make  the  seventh  tree,  Pound  Sweet 
and  Danchy  Sweet  the  eight,  and  then  give  the  ninth 
and  tenth  to  King  David  and  Shiawassie  Beauty. 
This  is  by  no  means  a  complete  list  of  apples,  nor 
does  it  include  what  I  myself  call  indispensables.  I 
am  lonesome  without  the  old-fashioned  Spitzenburg, 
the  Rhode  Island  Greening,  and  the  Swaar.  Only 
do  not  let  anybody  persuade  you  to  plant  for  a  cosy 
home  use  any  such  apples  as  Ben  Davis. 

In  my  book  on  Orchards  I  gave  a  list  of  apples 
for  a  delicate  stomach.  I  am  inclined  to  modify 
that  list  very  decidedly,  but  I  would  put  in  Mother, 
Wismer's  Dessert,  Delicious,  Scott's  Winter,  and 
Princess  Louise.  Some  of  these  I  do  not  put  in 
my  recommended  list,  because  they  are  subject  to 
diseases  that  the  ordinary  grower  will  hardly  combat 
successfully.  A  list  of  apples  nearly  immune  to  in- 
sect attack,  the  most  easily  kept  healthy,  and  good 
bearers  would  be  this:  Wealthy,  Seeknofurther, 
Shiawassie  Beauty,  Hubbardston,  Maiden's  Blush, 
Stayman's  Winesap,  and  King  David. 

It  is  our  good  fortune  to  be  able  to  secure  a  list 
of  pears  that  will  cover  a  full  season,  almost  as 
surely  as  apples.  A  list  of  first-class  varieties  would 
be  Rostiezer,  Bartlett,  Tyson,  Onondaga,  Sheldon, 
Seckel,  Anjou,  Lawrence,  adding  Patrick  Barry  for 


1 82     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

very  late.  This  leaves  out  Clapp's  Favorite,  which 
should  be  added  if  you  will  only  make  sure  to  pick 
it  early.  Those  families  who  can  plant  only  four  or 
five  trees  should  take  Clapp's  Favorite  and  Bartlett 
grafted  together,  Sheldon,  Seckel,  Anjou  and  Law- 
rence grafted  together,  and  Patrick  Barry.  Reduce 
this  to  three  trees  and  you  might  take  Bartlett,  Shel- 
don, and  Anjou. 

I  believe  in  the  plum  as  a  wonderful  fruit,  most 
delicious  and  most  wholesome.  It  is  great  for  cook- 
ing, for  canning,  and  for  eating  out  of  hand.  Of 
the  old  fashioned  or  European  sorts  we  must  have 
Green  Gage,  Peter's  Yellow  Gage,  Coe's  Golden 
Drop,  Diamond,  Shropshire  Damson,  Fellenburg 
Prune,  and  for  show  as  well  as  for  quality  the  Pond. 

There  are  two  preeminent  varieties  that  I  shall  not 
advise  you  to  plant,  simply  because  they  are  so  given 
to  black  knot  and  suckering  —  I  refer  to  Bleecker 
or  Lombard  and  Magnum  Bonum.  Both  of  these 
are  hopelessly  subject  to  disease,  but  as  we  can  easily 
have  them  on  their  own  roots,  one  may  cut  down  a 
diseased  tree  and  renew  it. 

If  you  have  but  one  plum  take  the  Green  Gage, 
which  is  the  very  essence  of  delicious  flavor,  also 
making  a  capital  preserve.  Shropshire  Damson  can 
be  secured  on  Its  own  roots  and  Is  the  Ideal  plum  for 
cooking.  Monarch  is  a  new  sort  of  superb  quality, 
ripening  in  October,  and  very  late  comes  Grand 
Duke,  one  of  the  first  of  all  plums  —  frequently 
hanging  in  excellent  condition  Into  the  first  snow. 


IN  OUR  ORCHARDS  183 

Fellenburg  Prune  is  of  the  highest  quality  and  very 
prohfic  of  large  sized  plums  —  for  prune  and  plum 
are  really  one. 

Almost  everyone  vi^ho  knows  anything  about  plums 
at  all  has  become  more  or  less  acquainted  with  the 
creations  of  Mr.  Burbank.  These  are  hybrids  of 
our  native  sorts  with  the  Japanese.  The  best  of 
these  hybrids  are  Shiro,  Red  June,  Climax,  Maynard, 
Sultan  and  Gold.  I  have  all  of  these  growing  to 
perfection,  with  the  exception  of  Sultan,  which  does 
not  prove  quite  hardy  in  New  York.  America  is  in 
some  ways  still  better  than  any  of  these,  and  very 
early,  only,  if  not  severely  thinned,  the  quality  of  the 
plum  is  positively  poor.  Abundance  and  Burbank 
are  two  importations,  both  of  them  quite  early  and 
of  about  equal  value.  They  should  both  be  picked 
from  the  tree  as  they  begin  to  color  and  allowed  to 
ripen  in  the  store  room. 

I  do  not  wonder  that  the  Japanese  worship  the 
cherry.  Spring  would  hardly  be  spring  without  the 
bursting  open  of  the  delicate  white  flowers  in  the 
cherry  garden.  You  can  divide  them  into  two 
classes,  the  sweet  and  the  sour.  The  sour  cherries 
are  very  much  alike,  only  some  of  them  are  a  little 
larger  and  more  meaty.  The  best  of  all  is  perhaps 
Montmorency,  or  possibly  Baldwin,  or  Suda  Hardy. 
These  three  you  might  easily  find  room  for. 

Of  the  sweet  cherries  Gov.  Wood,  Windsor, 
Napoleon,  and  Dikeman  are  enough  for  a  small  home. 
Black  Tartarian,  however,  is  a  magnificent  affair  if 


1 84     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

you  have  room  for  it,  and  so  is  the  Rockport.  But 
for  my  own  choice  I  prefer  of  all  cherries  the  May 
Duke,  coming  into  a  class  about  half  way  between 
the  sweet  and  the  sour.  The  trees  like  to  stand  about 
fifteen  feet  high,  are  almost  as  hardy  as  the  sour 
sorts,  and  the  quality  when  dead  ripe  is  absolutely 
satisfactory  —  nothing  more  can  be  asked  for. 

I  would  grow  peach  trees  for  the  flowers,  if  there 
were  no  such  wonderful  things  as  peaches.  I  have 
them  in  New  York  State,  In  Michigan,  and  am  now 
planting  them  in  Florida.  My  colored  friend  says, 
"  Well,  suh,  Mr.  Powell,  seems  to  me  the  peach  is 
about  all  good  things  in  one.  It  Is  pretty  for  sartin, 
like  the  sunset,  and  It  is  good  for  a  Christian,  and  it 
is  all  right  —  only  it  ain't  satisfyin'.  I  can  fill  yup 
with  melyon,  but  I  can't  fill  yup  with  peaches."  I 
think  he  hits  the  mark  exactly.  The  peach  never 
surfeits ;  that  is  good  peaches  do  not. 

I  would  plant  by  preference  Crosby,  Champion, 
Alton,  Admiral  Dewey,  and  Stump  the  World.  In 
Florida  we  have  to  make  our  choice  from  another 
set  of  peaches.  We  plant  the  Victor,  the  Triumph, 
the  Mayflower,  the  Champion,  the  Jewell,  and  others 
from  the  Southern  China  stock. 

Spraying  in  the  orchard  does  not  differ  very  much 
v/hen  applied  to  the  different  sorts  of  fruit.  If  the 
arsenites  and  Bordeaux  mixture  are  used  together, 
they  cover  the  whole  problem  of  Insects  and  fungi, 
but   if   freely   applied   to   plums   and   cherries   and 


IN  OUR  ORCHARDS  185 

peaches,  lime  must  be  added  to  prevent  damage  to 
the  trees. 

The  chief  difficulties  that  we  have  in  the  apple 
orchard  are  with  codling  moth  and  trypeta  fly;  for 
the  former  we  spray  with  arsenltes,  but,  alas,  for  the 
latter  we  have  no  remedy  but  to  keep  the  orchard 
open  to  sun  and  air.  Sheep  pastures  are  almost  im- 
mune from  this  pest.  The  apple  aphis  or  louse  is 
an  occasional  pest,  covering  whole  states  and  almost 
beyond  our  power  of  control.  The  best  remedy  is 
to  encourage  the  white-faced  hornets  (the  paper 
builders)  who  devour  millions  of  the  insects. 

At  all  times,  but  especially  when  the  orchard  is  in- 
fested with  lice,  there  is  great  danger  of  too  many 
blossoms  setting  fruit.  The  result  will  be  clusters 
or  clumps  of  small  and  unsalable  apples.  The 
remedy  is  to  go  over  the  trees,  thinning  out  the 
smaller  fruit,  and  then  go  over  again,  until  at  least 
three-fourths  of  the  stock  is  removed.  The  result 
will  be  large,  fine  apples,  where  your  neighbors  have 
none  worth  the  picking.  Very  few  have  patience  to 
practice  this  art  in  apple  growing,  and  as  a  conse- 
quence they  will  occasionally  lose  their  whole  crop. 
The  thinning  is  done  with  a  wire  crook  attached  to 
the  end  of  a  short  pole. 

Borers  are  of  several  kinds  and  infest  apples, 
peaches,  quinces,  and  sometimes  plums.  They  work 
generally  at  the  base  of  the  tree  and  just  at  the  edge 
of  the  soil.     The  simple  remedy  is  to  cut  them  out 


1 86     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

with  a  sharp  pointed  knife,  or  follow  them  through 
their  tracks  with  a  flexible  wire,  until  crushed.  Then 
pile  around  the  tree  a  good  supply  of  coal  ashes. 
This  material  serves  at  once  for  mulch  and  to  pre- 
vent the  easy  working  of  the  moths  and  beetles.  As 
for  the  nest-makIng  worms  or  caterpillars,  any  one 
with  common  sense  and  energy  can  manage  them. 
Wind  a  bunch  of  cotton  around  the  end  of  a  pole, 
saturate  It  with  kerosene,  set  It  on  fire  and  burn  them 
out.  Persistency  will  keep  the  upper  hand  of  any 
foe  of  this  sort. 

Plums  you  must  jar  with  a  pole  padded  at  the  end, 
so  as  not  to  bruise  the  tree,  and  the  curculio  or  sting- 
ing bug  will  fall  on  sheets  spread  below.  These 
must  be  quickly  picked  up  and  destroyed.  Begin  the 
jarring  just  as  soon  as  the  petals  drop  and  keep  it 
up  for  about  ten  days.  The  plum  knot  must  be  cut 
off  as  soon  as  It  appears,  and  you  had  better  burn 
it.  Cherries  give  us  little  trouble,  except  that  they 
must  be  covered  with  mosquito  netting  to  exclude  the 
birds.  Netting  will  last  for  three  years  if  carefully 
preserved,  and  you  should  leave  some  of  your  trees 
for  your  allies  in  the  air. 

On  the  whole,  the  fight  for  our  fruit  is  not  so 
severe  as  one  would  judge,  where  no  effort  has  been 
made  to  meet  the  difficulties.  In  1909,  however, 
there  was  a  loss  of  three-fourths  of  the  whole  apple 
crop  in  New  York  and  New  England  from  the  louse 
and  lack  of  thinning.  The  country  really  cannot  af- 
ford this  shiftless  way  of  dealing  with  the  great 


IN  OUR  ORCHARDS  187 

problem  of  production.  The  people  need  full  crops, 
not  only  for  home  consumption,  but  to  supply  the 
population  that  is  congested  in  cities. 

For  your  own  use  an  apple  cellar  is  one  of  the 
most  important  rooms  in  the  house.  A  dugout  un- 
derneath your  home,  damp  and  nasty,  with  decaying 
vegetables  and  mould,  is  a  breeder  of  pestilence,  and 
you  need  not  wonder  that  you  have  malaria  and 
fevers.  All  cellars  should  be  as  clean  as  parlors, 
and  the  apple  cellar  should  be  a  room  by  itself,  sweet 
to  the  smell  and  free  from  every  possible  taint.  I 
should  prefer  to  have  it  an  adjunct  of  the  barn,  pro- 
vided it  is  entirely  dissociated  from  the  stables.  Let 
it  be  at  least  seven  feet  to  the  ceiling,  better  eight, 
with  very  solid  walls  and  plenty  of  windows.  Ven- 
tilate it  thoroughly  all  summer,  and  after  your  fruit 
has  been  placed  in  it  for  winter  shut  it  up  tightly  and 
keep  the  thermometer  as  nearly  as  possible  at  thirty- 
three. 

My  cellar  is  furnished  with  bins  where  the  apples 
can  lie  about  eight  Inches  thick.  Apples  as  they  are 
removed  from  the  trees  are  handled  like  eggs;  then 
instead  of  being  poured  from  baskets  they  are  laid 
out  gently.  From  the  wagon  they  are  carefully 
sorted  into  firsts,  seconds,  and  thirds.  The  firsts  are 
carefully  laid  Into  bins,  or  if  sold,  into  barrels;  the 
seconds  have  their  own  bins  and  are  as  good  as  those 
generally  found  in  market  as  firsts.  As  for  the 
thirds,  we  can  do  nothing  better  with  them  than  to 
turn  them  into  cider. 


1 88     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

This  handling  of  apples  applies  to  every  other 
fruit  —  do  it  with  refinement.  The  trouble  with  the 
pears  and  the  peaches  that  rot  in  transit  is  very 
largely  that  they  are  tumbled  about  and  rolled.  They 
are  poured  from  the  picking  bag  or  basket  into  the 
transit  basket.  Pickers  are  not  careful  and  dealers 
are  even  less  so.  Nothing  deserves  your  most  care- 
ful handling  more  than  these  delicious  gifts  of 
Nature.  Do  not  pull  the  fruit  from  the  tree,  but 
clip  the  stem.  Do  not  lay  them  in  piles  on  the 
ground,  but  ripen  them  in  cool,  dark  places.  Pears 
should  be  picked,  as  a  rule,  five  or  ten  days  before 
becoming  soft  and  stored  in  dark  rooms,  or  shipped 
at  once. 

Winter  pears  can  be  kept  precisely  like  winter 
apples  in  bins.  The  Grand  Duke  plum  also  can  be 
kept  in  cellars  until  midwinter.  The  storage  of 
grapes  depends  upon  so  many  conditions  that  I  should 
not  advise  any  effort  at  cellar  storage.  Keep  them 
in  dry  rooms,  spread  thinly  in  baskets  and  covered 
with  brown  paper. 

In  Florida  my  orchard  is  something  very  different, 
but  very  delightful.  Of  course  the  orange  stands 
first  and  is  a  close  rival  for  the  apples.  In  blossom, 
beginning  in  February,  its  fragrance  rolls  in  waves 
with  the  wind  for  half  a  mile.  Mingled  with  the 
odor  of  the  pines,  nothing  can  be  more  wholesome. 
Imagine  three  hundred  full-grown  orange  trees, 
standing  about  twenty  feet  high,  absolutely  white  with 
bloom,  stormed  by  millions  of  bees,  yet  many  sorts 


IN  OUR  ORCHARDS  189 

still  studded  with  golden  fruit.  The  last  year's  crop 
will  not  be  entirely  gone  before  the  first  of  June. 

We  speak  of  oranges  here  as  we  do  of  apples  in 
the  North ;  not  in  the  general  but  in  the  particular, 
asking  for  a  Ruby  or  a  Jaffa  or  a  Tardif  or  a  Wash- 
ington Naval.  Most  of  these  are  of  recent  intro- 
duction and  are  improvements  on  the  old  sorts  that 
were  planted  by  the  Spaniards.  The  lemon  is 
slightly  more  tender  to  frost  than  the  orange,  yet 
you  find  here  and  there  a  tree  covered  with  lighter 
yellow  fruit  bending  Its  limbs  to  the  ground.  The 
grapefruit  also  is  frequently  planted  in  the  same  or- 
chard, and  this  also  bears  its  fruit  very  heavily. 

But  nothing  is  finished  in  the  Florida  orchard  as 
nothing  Is  through  with  evolution  in  the  Northern 
orchard.  In  my  short  life  is  included  the  entire 
development  of  the  whole  Fameuse  and  Winesap 
families,  which  now  Include  many  of  the  best  apples 
that  we  grow.  The  orange  is  on  the  same  road  of 
evolution,  and  while  Mr.  Burbank  is  working  among 
the  plums,  and  Stark  Brothers  are  offering  us  such 
apples  as  King  David,  and  Mr.  Munson  is  origina- 
ting such  grapes  as  Headlight  and  Brilliant,  new  sorts 
of  oranges,  sweeter  and  richer,  are  being  created  in 
Florida.  We  have  already  a  lemon  that  weighs  two 
pounds,  thin-skinned  and  exceedingly  high  flavored. 
It  is  a  wonderful  sight  when  filling  full  the  limbs  of 
a  twelve-foot  tree. 

There  Is  another  fruit  down  there  called  the 
loquat.     It  is  a  combination  of  pear  and  cherry,  a 


i90     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

pear  in  form  and  a  cherry  in  flavor.  It  is  so  superb 
that  Nature  does  not  care  to  ship  it  —  just  makes 
it  too  delicate  for  anything  but  home  use.  The  leaf 
looks  much  like  a  coarse  elm,  but  it  is  evergreen. 
The  huge  clusters  of  flowers  begin  to  open  in 
November,  and  the  first  are  barren,  but  they  continue 
to  expand  through  December  and  January.  These 
end  in  great  clusters  of  golden  yellow  fruit  that  the 
jays  like  to  jab  holes  into  to  suck  the  juice  and  let  in 
the  sunshine. 

A  friend  sent  me  a  crate  of  pineapples.  I  sup- 
posed that  I  knew  pineapples,  but  here  was  a  novelty. 
Cut  dead  ripe  from  the  stem,  I  was  told  to  cut  the 
apples  into  slices  of  half  an  Inch  thick,  to  pare  these 
of  the  rind,  and  eat  from  hand.  To  sugar  such  a 
pineapple  would  be  to  sugar  a  Bartlett  pear  or  a 
Northern  Spy.  I  followed  directions,  and  discov- 
ered what  Byron  could  not  find,  "  a  new  sensation." 
Here  It  works  just  the  other  way  from  what  it 
does  with  peaches,  for  a  single  slice  sends  a  joy  all 
through  you  and  two  slices  completely  satisfy  every 
knowable  desire,  leaving  you  the  conviction  that  you 
could  not  add  to  your  Internal  peacefulness.  That  Is 
a  vile  thing  that  Is  shipped  North,  to  be  sugar  soaked 
and  Iced.     It  Is  not  the  real  pineapple. 

We  have  mulberries  In  our  Northern  orchards, 
but  we  mostly  leave  them  to  the  birds,  as  we  should. 
I  think  that  a  row  of  mulberry  trees  at  the  rear  of 
a  country  home  would  make  a  good  wind-break  and 
help  considerably  to  keep  the  birds  out  of  the  gar- 


IN  OUR  ORCHARDS  191 

den.  But  in  Florida  the  mulberry  is  a  marvel.  As 
soon  as  it  begins  to  ripen  in  March  the  mocking- 
birds and  the  cardinal  birds  and  the  blue  jays  and 
all  other  birds  assemble  In  convention  among  the 
limbs,  while  hens  compete  with  razorbacks  for  all 
that  fall,  and  yet  there  is  more  than  enough  for 
human  folks.  I  never  saw  any  other  tree  that  could 
so  turn  itself  into  a  complete  mass  of  fruit  as  the 
mulberry,  each  one  about  as  big  as  your  thumb.  It 
is  delicious  to  be  eaten  out  of  hand,  but  for  puddings 
and  pies,  with  a  few  drops  of  lemon  juice  added,  it 
is  the  only  conceivable  rival  of  our  Northern  black- 
berry. 

The  Japanese  persimmon  has  the  family  trait  of 
astrlngency  until  dead  ripe;  then  it  is  like  a  big  red 
or  yellow  tomato,  with  a  thick  skin,  while  the  con- 
tents are  delicious  clotted  cream,  to  be  eaten  with  a 
spoon.  Some  of  these  persimmons  make  bushes  like 
quinces,  but  others  stand  tall  and  very  like  pear  trees. 
The  time  of  ripening  runs  from  September  until 
January.  Our  native  persimmon,  in  its  very  best 
sorts.  Is  not  only  more  hardy  than  the  Japanese,  but 
Is  good  enough  to  please  the  palate,  yet  at  Its  best 
it  can  hardly  bear  comparison  with  the  borrowed 
sorts.  The  persimmon,  however.  Is  destined  to  bear 
a  very  prominent  place  among  American  fruits  dur- 
ing the  coming  century. 

Fruit  is  doing  a  great  deal  to  make  our  modern  life 
sweeter  and  stronger.  Every  sort  that  I  have 
named,  both  In  the  North  and  In  the  South,  is  on 


192     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

the  road  of  betterment,  and  we  are  moving  forward 
and  upward  with  our  food.  Slowly  but  surely  we 
are  becoming  vegetarians;  not  vegetablearians,  but 
eaters  of  nuts,  fruits,  and  cereals  as  well  as  vege- 
tables, in  preference  to  meat.  It  is  a  hopeful  sign 
when  a  nation  works  through  its  government,  as  ours 
is  working,  along  this  line  of  creative  improvement. 
Anyone  can  become  a  creator,  and  while  he  im- 
mortalizes his  name,  can  bless  the  whole  human  fam- 
ily with  a  new  kind  of  food. 

The  apple  is  the  one  indispensable  fruit;  the 
orange  is  not.  The  average  consumption  of  oranges 
has  probably  reached  its  maximum,  and  with  oranges 
at  a  cent  a  piece  and  apples  at  five  cents  a  piece,  it 
needs  no  demonstration  to  convince  us  that  the  apple 
is  not  getting  sufficient  attention.  Our  whole  nation 
needs  to  be  waked  up  to  this  great  fact  that  every 
educated  apple  orchardist  can  reap  an  abundant 
recompense  for  his  work,  while  he  becomes  a  national 
benefactor.  It  is  not  the  wprk  for  a  lout,  but  for 
a  thinker  and  student.  The  tree  and  the  fruit  alike 
demand  a  good  master. 


CHAPTER  IX 
FINDING  AND   MAKING   SOIL 

ABOVE  everything  else  Nature  tries  to  make 
soil,  and  this,  you  may  be  sure,  is  what  you 
will  have  to  help  her  do,  if  you  make  a 
prosperous  country  home.  Soil  is  by  no  means  a 
"  fixed  quantity,"  as  one  of  our  recent  text  books 
tells  us;  on  the  contrary,  soil  elements  are  constantly 
being  turned  into  soil,  and  soil  turned  back  into  its 
elements  —  out  of  reach  of  us.  In  summer  Nature 
weaves  an  Immense  quantity  of  foliage,  out  of  the 
air  mostly,  and  then  in  the  autumn  throws  tons  of 
leaves  down  upon  the  earth  to  make,  first,  humus  and 
then  soil. 

Fools  burn  leaves,  leaving  for  themselves  a  pinch 
of  poor  ash,  but  sending  back  into  the  air  what  was 
taken  from  it  by  the  process  of  growth.  These 
thousands  of  tons  are  not  made  out  of  the  earth  but 
out  of  the  air  and  are  intended  to  be  turned  over 
into  soil.  If  you  plant  a  tree  in  a  tub  of  dirt  and 
leave  It  there  until  it  weighs  one  hundred  pounds, 
you  will  find,  by  weighing  the  dirt,  that  the  tree  was 
not  made  up  of  what  was  in  the  tub,  but  almost  alto- 
gether of  what  it  could  get  from  the  air  —  carbon 

193 


194     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

and  nitrogen  for  the  most  part,  with  hydrogen  com- 
posing a  good  share  of  the  Hquld  part  or  sap. 

The  elements  of  the  soil  that  are  not  in  the  air 
are  deep  down  under  the  surface  of  the  soil,  or  in- 
corporated in  the  rocks.  The  most  Important  are 
potash  and  phosphorus.  You  get  some  potash  from 
ashes,  weed  waste,  soap  suds,  and  there  are  few  soils 
that  In  their  natural  state  are  entirely  deficient  in 
this  element.  The  timber  soils  of  our  corn  belt  con- 
tain about  two  thousand  pounds  of  phosphorus  per 
acre.  Raising  crops  that  use  up  these  elements 
steadily  lessens  the  possibility  of  growing  any  crops 
at  all.  We  have  got  to  find  them  In  the  soil;  if  we 
use  them  up,  we  have  got  to  replace  them. 

Agriculture  should  be  renamed  aerlculture,  be- 
cause we  are  really  taking  from  the  air  the  larger 
part  of  our  annual  crops.  What  we  must  know  is 
how  to  do  this  most  readily.  Our  fathers  knew  that 
they  must  use  manure  and  they  knew  that  they  must 
rotate  crops.  They  knew  also  that  living  plants  fed 
on  decaying  plants,  this  having  first  served  as  food 
for  animals. 

They  did  not  know,  however,  and  It  was  only 
recently  discovered,  that  there  was  one  class  of  plants 
that  could  take  plant  food  directly  from  the  air,  using 
It  at  once  for  plant  growth  and  then  transferring  it 
to  the  soil.  It  was  not  many  years  ago  that  we  first 
found  out  that  all  leguminous  plants,  like  clover, 
alfalfa,  beans,  peas,  and  in  the  South  crimson  clover, 
cow  peas,  velvet  beans,  and  beggar  weed  had  been 


FINDING  AND  MAKING  SOIL       195 

doing  this  very  work  and  that,  If  given  possession  of 
the  soil,  they  would  not  exhaust  It  of  nitrogen,  but 
would  Increase  the  nitrogen  —  that  is  the  most  im- 
portant plant  food. 

Here  we  have  the  most  wonderful  of  all  facts  con- 
cerning your  little  garden,  or  your  larger  fields,  that 
by  planting  peas  and  beans,  or  sowing  clover  and 
alfalfa  you  are  not  exhausting  your  land  —  except 
in  the  way  of  phosphorus  and  potash.  Then  It  was 
found  that  this  specific  power  of  legumes  was  due  to 
nodules  on  the  roots  and  that  these  nodules  were 
the  home  of  bacteria  of  a  peculiar  sort.  Hereto- 
fore bacteria  had  not  carried  to  the  mind  of  the  crop 
grower  any  pleasant  suggestion.  They  were  sup- 
posed as  a  rule  to  be  associated  with  disease,  but  now 
bacteria  began  to  be  thought  of  as  a  beneficent 
agency. 

Bacteria  subdivide  to  multiply,  and  the  Kansas  Ex- 
periment Station  reports  that  It  estimates  over  one 
billion  six  hundred  millions  in  a  single  gram  of  soil. 
As  you  go  down  Into  the  earth  bacterial  life  decreases, 
until  It  ceases  entirely  below  six  feet.  As  four-fifths 
of  the  air  Is  nitrogen,  the  bacteria  have  a  big  field 
to  work  in.  They  transform  it  and  then  turn  It  over 
to  the  plant  as  food.  Why  ?  We  do  not  know  why, 
any  more  than  we  know  how.  But  we  do  know  that 
it  Is  done  In  connection  with  the  little  appendages 
called  tubercles  or  nodules  on  the  roots  of  the 
legumes.  If  you  will  carefully  dig  a  young  clover 
,(not  pull  it),  and  plunge  the  roots  Into  warm  water, 


196     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

softly  washing  away  the  dirt,  you  will  find  them  strung 
all  along  with  beautiful  and  almost  translucent  round 
bodies :  these  are  the  home  of  the  bacteria. 

It  was  found  a  little  later  that  if  these  bacteria 
nodules  were  lacking,  the  legumes  would  fail.  Some 
soil,  however,  was  found  always  supplied.  Then  it 
occurred  to  someone  to  inoculate  the  soil;  that  is, 
carry  bacteria-supplied  soil  to  localities  lacking  them, 
to  see  if  it  would  work  a  change.  It  was  discovered 
that  every  sort  of  legume  had  its  own  special  bacteria 
and  it  would  grow  only  when  supplied  with  its  own 
friends,  but  as  a  rule  we  could  transplant  the  bacteria 
needed. 

So  we  got  alfalfa  where  it  had  refused  to  grow  by 
giving  it  alfalfa  bacteria.  Some  of  these  life  germs 
are  not  very  much  unlike,  however,  for  that  which 
accompanies  sweet  clover  will  do  for  alfalfa.  Beans 
and  peas  will  grow  for  a  while  without  any  bacteria, 
but  in  that  case  they  will  exhaust  the  soil,  while  with 
bacteria  they  enrich  it. 

One  experiment  station  reports  that  of  two  plats  of 
soil,  one  inoculated  and  the  other  not,  the  first 
yielded  over  nine  thousand  pounds  of  green  forage 
per  acre,  the  other  nine  hundred;  in  hay,  the  first 
yielded  twenty-five  hundred  pounds,  and  the  other 
two  hundred  and  thirty.  So  goes  the  most  wonder- 
ful chapter  on  soil  making  and  soil  renewing.  Rota- 
tion of  crops  is,  of  course,  not  superseded  by  this 
discovery,  for  it  is  still  true  that  corn  lands,  after  a 
few  years,  must  be  turned  over  to  peas  and  clover, 


FINDING  AND  MAKING  SOIL       197 

the  object  being  to  restore  the  nitrogen.  But  now 
we  are  working  with  more  precision;  we  know  what 
is  going  on  and  we  know  that  rotation  will  be  of  lit- 
tle use  unless  our  beans  and  peas  or  vetch  have  bac- 
terial aid. 

Meanwhile  the  other  side  of  the  question  was  ex- 
ploited; that  is,  if  you  grow  nitrogen-procuring  or 
leguminous  plants  altogether,  while  adding  to  the 
nitrogen,  they  will  exhaust  the  potash  and  phos- 
phorus. This  gave  the  problem  over  to  commercial 
fertilizers,  which  succeeded  in  furnishing  the  material 
that  was  lacking  in  the  form  of  nitrates  and  muriates. 
Much  of  this  served,  however,  only  as  a  whip  to  a 
tired  horse;  nothing  was  added  to  the  "soil,  but  it 
was  goaded  to  give  out  whatever  life  it  contained. 
It  is  now  found  that  there  is  a  very  marked  limit  to 
the  value  of  even  honest  fertilizers.  Their  work 
rarely  reaches  beyond  the  season  of  their  applica- 
tion. 

Commercial  fertilizers  are  certainly  important,  if 
understood  and  used  under  limitations,  or  I  should 
say  with  additions.  They  supply  some  foods,  but 
practically  no  organic  matter,  and  the  tendency  Is 
down  and  out.  They  are  for  good  soil,  and  not  for 
poor  soil.  I  think  if  I  were  growing  a  bed  of  fancy 
strawberries  I  would  use  a  liberal  supply  of  muriate 
of  potash  and  acid  phosphate,  but  I  should  consider 
cottonseed  meal  more  important  as  a  real  food;  and 
then  I  would  by  no  means  omit  a  thorough  prepara- 
tion of  the  soil  with  compost  and  a  mulch. 


198     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

Finely  ground  phosphate  rock  and  hmestone  are 
what  we  require  to  help  the  legumes.  In  most  of 
our  soils  we  have  almost  unlimited  supplies  of  min- 
eral elements.  These  must  be  liberated;  that  is,  set 
at  work  by  adding  decayed  organic  matter.  The  use 
of  lime  to  aid  in  setting  free  the  power  of  decaying 
stuff  is  of  exceeding  importance. 

The  barnyard  gives  us  our  best  fertilizing  material 
when  supplementing  legumes,  and  deep  plowing  to 
reach  our  mineral  supplies  comes  next  in  importance. 
Every  stable  should  be  provided  with  a  concrete 
trough  to  carry  evei"y  ounce  of  urine  to  a  concrete 
tank.  It  is  the  best  fertilizer,  in  the  best  form,  for 
plant  food.     The  Chinese  gardener  uses  no  other. 

Someone  has  spoken  recently  of  "  The  Farm  That 
Is  Under  Yours,"  meaning  that  we  have  much  of  our 
soil  wealth  forever  untouched.  We  have  to  get 
down  deep  enough  (with  drainage  as  well  as  plow- 
ing) ;  work  up  what  is  below;  aerate  It,  and  not  leave 
it  a  dead  weight  on  top  of  the  soil.  So  then  you 
may  say  that  you  have  a  farm  in  sight,  another  farm 
below  in  the  earth,  and  a  third  farm  above  in  the 
air ;  and  you  cannot  make  a  good  garden  or  orchard 
or  grain  field  unless  you  can  bring  these  three  farms 
together  and  make  them  cooperate. 

Now  you  understand  why  I  have  given  soil-mak- 
ing a  place  in  this  brief  discussion  of  farming. 
What  is  the  use  of  purposing  to  double  our  milk  sup- 
ply, or  our  fruit  supply,  or  our  wheat  crop,  when 
really  the  land  is  not  able  to  keep  up  the  present 


FINDING  AND  MAKING  SOIL       199 

unsatisfactory  yield?  We  must  bring  the  soil  ele- 
ments together  and  increase  the  amount  of  good  plant 
food.  Meanwhile  only  a  small  fraction  of  what  we 
call  soil  is  plant  food.  For  the  present  a  very  large 
amount  in  bulk,  is  what  we  have  recently  learned  to 
call  humus.  That  is  a  new  word  with  most  country 
home-makers,  but  it  means  something  vastly  im- 
portant. Humus  is  incipient  soil;  it  is  stuff  on  the 
road  to  be  good  plant  food  by  and  by. 

It  was  thought  for  a  while  that  it  had  no  other 
office  than  to  equalize  moisture  about  the  roots  and 
to  equalize  temperature  in  the  soil.  That  would  be 
enough,  if  it  were  all.  There  is  nothing  more  im- 
portant than  to  keep  moisture  from  rushing  up  out 
of  the  land  into  the  air,  and,  next  to  that,  we  must 
keep  the  roots  of  our  plants  from  feeling  every 
change  of  weather.  Humus  is  the  stockings  and  the 
shoes  that  we  put  on  our  plants.  But  it  is  more,  it 
is  always  yielding  life. 

Anyone  who  has  learned  the  importance  of  humus 
will  understand  me  when  I  say  I  never  burn  an  ounce 
of  organic  matter  that  can  be  decomposed  with  any 
kind  of  readiness.  You  can  burn  up  soil  In  manure 
piles  as  easily  as  In  leaf  piles.  Nearly  all  manure 
is  charred  by  too  rapid  ferment,  and  the  loss  is  esti- 
mated at  eighty-five  per  cent  of  all  that  Is  made  in. 
the  United  States.  Most  of  the  stuff  that  Is  plowed 
in  as  manure,  or  used  as  top  dressing.  Is  already 
more  than  half  burned. 

The  most  wasteful  method  of  using  weeds,   or 


200     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

bean  or  pea  vines,  is  to  burn  them.  The  result  is 
only  a  few  pounds  of  ashes  and  the  loss  of  a  large 
amount  of  ammonia  or  nitrogen.  Everything  that 
is  intended  as  a  fertilizer  should  be  plowed  under  be- 
fore it  is  dried  up —  (that  is  burned  up).  Other- 
wise we  have  lost  our  humus  also. 

Now  is  the  time  to  tell  you  more  of  what  compost 
is,  how  to  make  it  and  what  to  do  with  it.  My  first 
object  is  to  accept  Nature's  offer  of  annual  vegeta- 
tion and  to  put  it  in  such  a  place  as  will  be  best  fitted 
gradually  to  transform  it  into  soil.  I  wish  as  soon 
as  possible  to  make  it  available  as  food  for  my 
plants  and  trees.  Then  I  wish  to  add  to  this  what- 
ever other  material  I  can  find  which  will  serve  the 
same  purpose.  When  you  have  once  begun  this  sys- 
tem of  soil  making,  you  will  be  astounded  to  find 
how  much  good  stuff  goes  to  waste  for  lack  of  being 
collected  and  composted.  Weeds,  road  dirt,  muck, 
leaf  mold,  the  contents  of  road  ditches,  ashes,  old 
plaster,  almost  everything  will  be  found  to  be  of 
value.  The  barnyard  manure,  of  course,  will  be 
added  but  in  such  a  way  as  to  check  its  decomposition. 
House  waste  and  slops  are  exceedingly  valuable  in  the 
same  pile. 

A  compost  heap  may  be  made  anywhere  about  your 
land,  whether  under  cover  or  not.  Put  in  layers  the 
barnyard  manure,  autumn  leaves,  wasting  weeds,  old 
straw,  and,  if  the  material  is  very  coarse,  occasionally 
add  lime.  Let  your  piles  alone  until  fall,  then 
thoroughly  comminute  them,  apply  them,  and  plow 


FINDING  AND  MAKING  SOIL       201 

them  under.  If  the  material  is  very  coarse  it  may  be 
necessary  to  leave  it  in  the  pile  for  more  than  a 
year. 

Try  this  compost  plant  at  your  country  home  and 
see  how  curiously  the  material  that  you  can  use  will 
turn  up  and  increase.  Stuff  that  was  in  the  way  be- 
fore now  looks  good  to  you.  You  clean  up  your 
lawns  and  your  gardens  and  burn  nothing  but  the 
bigger  limbs.  The  ash  of  these  gives  you  a  little 
potash,  but  your  compost  pile  gives  you  potash  and 
phosphorus  and  nitrogen  all  together. 

The  most  fertile  spots  on  some  farms  that  I  know 
are  in  the  corners  of  rail  fences,  where  nothing  but 
weeds  grow.  Haul  this  to  your  compost  pile.  The 
barnyard  manure,  mixed  even  carelessly,  will  not 
waste  its  nitrogen  as  it  will  when  thrown  raw  on  the 
field.  If  you  have  only  half  an  acre,  have  also  a 
compost  pile;  I  have  five  of  them  for  my  nine  acres. 
I  grow  squashes  on  them  during  the  summer,  so  that 
they  shall  not  look  unsightly.  Into  one  of  them  I 
run  my  cesspool  material  from  the  house.  All  this 
is  wealth,  and  not  an  ounce  should  be  wasted. 

One  ton  of  leaves  contains  sixteen  pounds  of  nitro- 
gen, six  pounds  of  phosphoric  acid,  and  six  pounds 
of  potash,  and  the  same  amount  of  weeds  is  worth 
a  good  deal  more.  A  ton  of  old  straw  is  worth 
nearly  as  much,  and  well  composted  with  barn 
manure,  and  turned  into  humus,  its  value  Is  greatly 
increased.  One  of  the  Southern  experiment  stations 
reports  that  the  land  normally  produces  one-fourth 


202     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

of  a  bale  of  cotton  to  the  acre,  but  by  the  annual  ap- 
plication of  thirty  bushels  of  such  compost  as  we 
have  described,  the  yield  has  been  Increased  to  one 
and  a  half  bales  per  acre,  and  ten  bushels  of  corn 
have  been  increased  fivefold. 

The  use  of  lime  is  important  in  connection  with 
everything  that  has  begun  to  be  transformed  and 
needs  quickening;  the  coarser  the  material  the  more 
need  of  lime.  Muck  just  dug  from  a  pond  or  else- 
where must  be  aerated  for  at  least  a  year,  and  lime 
helps  greatly  in  transforming  the  mass.  If  already 
slacked,  lime  can  be  spread  on  the  soil  In  any  con- 
venient way,  or  dumped  in  heaps  and  spread  with  a 
shovel.  Where  only  small  quantities  of  the  un- 
slacked  are  to  be  used,  you  can  immerse  it  for  a 
moment  in  water  before  applying  It. 

In  what  are  called  acid  soils  and  those  that  con- 
tain a  great  deal  of  humus  there  is  little  danger  from 
applying  too  much  lime,  but  If  applied  in  excessive 
amounts  It  will  Injure  plants  directly  and  damage  the 
texture  of  the  soil  for  growing  future  plants.  This 
damage  will  not  last  a  long  while,  because  the  car- 
bonic acid  of  the  soil  will  neutralize  It.  However, 
in  your  garden  and  orchard  experiments  you  do  not 
wish  to  make  mistakes. 

The  experiment  stations  tell  us  that  nearly  all  our 
garden  vegetables  are  benefited  by  liming,  especially 
lettuce,  celery,  onions,  egg  plant,  asparagus,  cabbage, 
peas;  when  Ave  go  Into  the  field  lime  Is  decidedly  use- 
ful for  alfalfa  and  all  the  clovers,   for  barley  and 


FINDING  AND  MAKING  SON.      203 

wheat  and  oats,  and  for  the  common  grasses.  It  is 
likely  to  injure  melons  and  is  not  reported  as  of  any 
use  for  corn  and  potatoes. 

Two  things  we  have  got  at  so  far,  and  they  are 
both  wonderful.  First,  we  find  that  legumes,  unlike 
all  other  plants,  will  get  food  directly  for  themselves 
out  of  the  air  and  that  this  food  when  used  by  them, 
can  be  stored  in  the  earth  to  be  used  by  other  plants. 
In  this  way  we  may  use  our  soil  forever.  The  old 
notion  that  worn  out  soils  are  a  necessary  consequence 
of  use  is  all  wrong.  Soils  are  worn  out  to  be  sure, 
but  it  is  from  a  bad  use  of  them.  We  have  found 
as  a  second  most  Important  fact  that  If  we  compost 
our  waste  stuff  we  can  make  out  of  what  Is  generally 
thrown  away  the  very  best  plant  food  conceivable. 

Most  of  our  weeds  are  our  best  farmers.  They 
are  busy  working  their  roots  down  deep  into  the  soil 
to  bring  up  unclaimed  elements,  at  the  same  time 
making  the  soil  porous.  Most  of  them  have  other 
uses,  and  I  doubt  if  a  single  plant  Is  In  existence  that 
Illustrates  "  pure  cussedness."  Some  of  our  very  best 
vegetables  were  weeds  when  I  was  a  boy. 

The  story  of  beggar  weed  Is  a  good  Illustration. 
It  got  Its  bad  name  when  It  was  supposed  to  be  a 
weed  and  nothing  more  —  the  veriest  plague  of  the 
cotton  fields.  A  little  while  ago  this  same  beggar 
weed  was  found  to  be  the  best  forage  and  hay  plant 
in  the  Southern  States.  Horses,  cows,  pigs,  hens, 
everything  devours  it  with  greediness.  The  leaves 
are  even  being  ground  up  to  make  flour,  out  of  which 


204     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

bread  of  a  high  quality  is  made.  The  velvet  bean 
was  a  vine  used  only  for  ornament,  but  it  has  turned 
out  to  be  a  producer  of  the  largest  quantity  of  valuable 
hay  and  fodder  known  in  the  world. 

Many  of  our  weeds  are  valuable  also  as  soil  binders, 
while  others,  if  handled  rightly,  lose  all  their  trouble- 
some qualities  and  can  be  added  to  our  compost  piles. 
There  are  a  few  weeds,  mainly  those  that  run  under 
ground,  or  those  that  go  to  seed  with  great  rapidity, 
which  get  in  the  way  so  badly  as  to  deserve  their  evil 
reputation.  Among  these  the  Canada  thistle,  the 
wild  morning  glory,  and  quack  grass  are  supreme  for 
meanness. 

In  the  Southern  States  they  have  what  they  call 
maiden  cane  grass,  which  is  only  our  couch  grass 
magnified  and  intensified.  It  will  take  possession  of 
land  with  astounding  rapidity,  and  its  power  to  fight 
for  the  ground  occupied  is  surprising.  There  is  this 
thing  about  it,  however,  that  even  our  couch  grasses 
make  good  hay  if  cut  early,  and  you  can  fertilize 
them  to  death.  A  good  plan  is  to  fence  in  these 
ungovernable  pests  to  hogs  —  then  move  your  hog 
pen  around  until  you  have  cleaned  out  a  good  sized 
patch. 

Salt  kills  some  things,  but  that  is  no  reason  why 
it  should  be  kept  out  of  our  gardens.  It  kills  some 
of  the  worst  weeds,  but  it  stimulates  grass  and  feeds 
asparagus.  One  of  the  very  worst  pests  for  a  lawn 
is  moneywort,  but  fed  well  with  salt  it  passes  away 
and  at  the  same  time  grass  takes  its  place.     Use  all 


FINDING  AND  MAKING  SOIL      205 

your  waste  brine  and  anything  else  that  contains  salt 
on  your  asparagus,  or  around  your  quinces  and  pears. 
Thorough  cultivation  will  take  care  of  most  of  the 
annual  weeds  and  one  or  two  hoeings  will  do  the  rest 
of  it.  In  the  fall  I  leave  my  last  crop  of  purslane 
and  chickweed  to  bind  the  soil  through  the  winter. 
This  is  advisable  only  where  your  soil  slopes  so  as 
to  wash  badly  during  the  thaws  and  floods  and  is  not 
advisable  anywhere  near  strawberry  beds,  for  chick- 
weed,  if  it  ever  gets  in,  will  never  give  up  until  the 
strawberries  are  plowed  out. 

Water  in  the  soil  is  just  as  important  as  the  soil 
itself.  Every  plant  consists  largely  of  water;  pota- 
toes are  three-fourths  water,  and  beets  and  carrots 
are  nearly  ninety  per  cent  liquid.  For  every  pound 
of  dry  matter  in  your  wheat  field  you  must  have 
nearly  four  hundred  pounds  of  water,  and  three  hun- 
dred for  every  pound  of  solid  matter  in  your  clover 
field.  Trees  contain,  as  a  rule,  about  one-third  their 
weight  of  water,  although  this  varies  somewhat  with 
the  season  and  with  the  variety  of  tree.  Professor 
Bailey  estimates  that  fifty  bushels  of  corn  per  acre, 
in  order  to  mature  will  require  one  million  and  a  half 
pounds  of  water;  and  two  hundred  bushels  of  pota- 
toes will  require  in  growth  one  and  a  quarter  million 
pounds  of  water. 

Now  the  point  for  the  country  home-maker  is  to 
find  out  just  about  how  much  water  his  soil  needs; 
the  superfluous  must  surely  be  drawn  away,  but 
enough  must  be  retained.     A  thorough  system  of 


2o6     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

drainage  can  never  be  omitted,  and  this  is  a  very 
simple  matter  after  all.  Use  up  the  stone  that  lies 
about  much  of  your  land,  and  where  this  cannot  be 
had,  tiling  is  a  good  substitute.  Use  four  inch  tile 
at  least,  for  small  tile  Is  liable  to  cost  more  in  the 
end  than  it  saves. 

We  have  already  found  that  adding  humus  to  the 
soil  equalizes  the  moisture ;  that  is,  it  holds  the  water 
that  belongs  there  and  will  not  let  It  be  evaporated 
too  rapidly.  They  have  a  way  In  very  dry  parts 
of  the  country  of  getting  along  without  rain,  by 
constant  tillage.  Instead  of  adopting  or  trying  to 
adopt  a  system  of  Irrigation,  the  plow  Is  run  all 
the  season.  The  surface  soil  Is  kept  loose  and  por- 
ous, so  that  It  will  absorb  moisture  rather  than  let  it 
free.  This  Is  the  only  cure  for  drought,  where  a 
system  of  Irrigation  Is  Impossible.  It  Is  a  good  plan 
anyway,  for  It  keeps  the  weeds  down,  as  well  as  holds 
the  moisture  In. 

In  other  articles  I  have  spoken  of  mulching,  and 
this  Is  exactly  what  we  are  doing  in  keeping  the  sur- 
face soil  stirred,  we  are  keeping  a  sort  of  blanket  all 
over  the  earth.  The  same  effect,  or  better,  is  ac- 
complished by  the  mulch  that  you  place  around  your 
trees ;  It  holds  the  moisture  In  with  the  roots  and 
positively  prevents  drying  out.  Work  the  mulch 
principle  for  all  It  is  worth,  and  I  assure  you  you  will 
have  good  trees  and  good  plants. 

But  mulching,  as  we  are  using  the  word  here,  is 
something  more;  It  Is  covering  a  whole  field  with  lit- 


FINDING  AND  MAKING  SOIL      207 

ter  or  straw  or  forkable  compost  and  leaving  this 
stuff  on,  without  stirring,  all  through  the  season's 
growth.  Generally  the  crop  is  cultivated  once  or 
twice  before  the  mulch  is  put  on,  or  in  some  cases  the 
field  is  covered  as  soon  as  planted.  I  have  tried  this 
plan  with  potatoes,  covering  with  coarse  hay  or  grass, 
and  the  plants  came  up  through  the  mulch  with  readi- 
ness, while  the  yield  was  as  good  as  it  would  have 
been  with  constant  cultivation. 

In  this  case  irrigation  is  accomplished  at  the  same 
time  that  the  work  of  cultivation  is  dispensed  with. 
The  economy  of  the  matter  depends,  of  course,  on 
the  result  in  the  way  of  crops.  The  reports  from 
our  experiment  stations  show  that  if  mulch  is  applied 
very  early  in  the  spring  it  prevents  the  ground  from 
being  thoroughly  warmed  up,  and  this,  will  check 
vegetable  growth.  It  was  found  unwise  to  mulch 
onions  and  corn,  but  favorable  results  came  from 
mulching  potatoes,  beans,  tomatoes,  and  vines. 

Direct  irrigation  has  become  a  matter  of  immense 
importance  in  the  arid  sections  of  the  country,  but 
skilled  gardeners  know  very  well  that  It  is  just  as 
valuable  in  the  Eastern  States,  where  droughts  are 
irregular,  but  quite  possible.  Outside  of  the  arid 
section,  the  simplest  method  is  to  have  a  windmill, 
lifting  water  from  a  deep  well  or  pond  or  flowing 
stream  to  a  tank,  from  which  the  water  is  distributed 
through  troughs  or  pipe. 

Just  as  important  as  water,  however,  Is  air  in  the 
soil.     The    roots    of   plants    are   only   underground 


2o8     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

limbs,  and  they  breathe  just  as  the  limbs  breathe. 
They  obtain  oxygen  from  the  air  and  throw  off  car- 
bon gases.  The  soil  must  be  so  prepared  and  so  kept 
during  the  growing  season  that  the  roots  can  have 
a  sufficient  supply  of  this  gas  or  air.  This  means 
that  the  soil  on  which  we  walk  is  not  by  any  means 
all  of  it  made  of  soil  particles,  but  that  much  of  it  is 
air.  In  clay  soils  the  air  spaces  are  small  and  the 
roots  are  less  likely  to  be  well  supplied  with  what 
they  need  for  healthy  action. 

The  object  of  plowing  is  to  stir  the  soil  and  let  the 
air  In,  and  almost  invariably  root  health  depends 
upon  frequent  stirring  of  the  soil  with  the  cultivator. 
Drainage  works  in  the  same  way,  for  as  it  lets  the 
water  out,  it  lets  the  air  in.  A  shower  of  rain  does 
good,  not  only  by  furnishing  moisture,  but  by  putting 
the  air  in  motion.  At  the  same  time  a  shower  is 
very  liable  to  form  a  crust  on  the  surface  that  pre- 
vents the  free  passage  of  air.  This  must  be  broken 
up  with  the  cultivator. 

In  sandy  soil  there  may  be  too  much  air,  and  in 
this  case  the  micro-organisms  that  are  at  work  on 
the  humus  are  as  badly  disturbed  as  from  a  lack  of 
aeration.  At  the  same  time  fungoid  formations  are 
developed  that  burn  out  the  soil.  So  you  find  that 
there  is  plenty  of  use  for  brains  at  every  stage  of  our 
work,  even  in  the  smallest  of  gardens. 

Just  at  this  point  note  the  relation  of  the  work 
which  is  being  carried  on  by  and  for  the  plants  and 
human  health.     While  the  roots  are  taking  up  car- 


FINDING  AND  MAKING  SOIL      209 

bon  dioxides,  they  are  alienating  them  from  oxygen 
and  ozone,  which  are  let  loose  into  the  air.  In  the 
process  of  hreathing  all  animals,  including  man, 
throw  off  poisonous  gases  which  the  plants  immedi- 
ately take  up  and  weave  into  foliage  and  fruit.  We 
need  every  particle  of  the  ozone  that  in  turn  is  given 
off  for  us. 

House  plants.  If  healthy,  are  during  the  winter  a 
sort  of  family  doctor,  using  up  a  good  share  of  the 
poison  that  is  breathed  Into  the  atmosphere  by  the 
occupants  of  the  house  and  weaving  It  over  Into  some- 
thing beautiful.  Each  little  pot  of  geraniums  gives 
us  a  quota  of  ozone  In  return  for  what  It  selects. 

A  good  deal  more  Important  Is  It  that  the  streets 
of  the  village  be  well  lined  with  trees  and  that  these 
trees  be  of  a  sort  that  can  take  up  the  pools  and 
puddles  and  street  drainage,  working  It  over  Into 
shade-giving  foliage  and  fruit.  Those  are  Ignorant 
mischief-makers  who  either  cut  or  mutilate  street 
trees.  Be  sure  also  that  around  your  house  there  Is 
enough  foliage,  not  for  shade  only  but  for  purifying 
the  air.  Vines  growing  all  over  the  house  do  no 
harm  whatever,  but  they  do  a  vast  amount  of  direct 
benefit  In  the  way  of  giving  you  wholesome  air  while 
using  up  the  poisonous. 

The  difference  between  sandy  and  clay  soils  Is 
mainly  that  with  the  first  we  must  establish  a  first 
rate  root  system,  and  after  that  we  must  supply  a 
larger  amount  of  mulch.  Turn  under  your  legumes, 
as  well  as  rye  or  any  other  succulent  stuff.     Learn  to 


2IO     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

make  use  of  the  worst  of  weeds,  for  they  are  some- 
times the  best  of  manure. 

Soil,  however,  varies  so  greatly,  often  every  few 
rods,  that  we  cannot  lay  down  general  rules  for  all 
particular  cases.  There  remains  work  for  the  brain, 
and  now  we  have  not  only  the  aid  of  agricultural 
colleges,  but  the  railroads  are  estabhshing  chains  of 
test  farms  across  our  States  to  study  the  peculiarities 
of  the  soil  and  aid  the  farmers. 

Subsoils  are  frequently  worth  a  good  deal  more 
than  surface  soils,  and  they  must  be  constantly 
brought  up  for  use.  If  you  cannot  get  at  It  any  more 
easily,  send  down  the  alfalfa,  whose  tap  root  often 
goes  twenty  feet  below  the  best  plow.  The  passage 
of  the  long  roots  through  the  soil  loosens  It,  and  when 
they  die  there  is  humus  away  down  below  where  any- 
thing before  was  available.  Under  the  sand  often 
lies  clay,  or  mixed  soils,  that  are  richer  than  the  sur- 
face. 

However  small  your  property,  you  had  better  be 
In  communication  with  your  State  experiment  station 
and  Invite  them  to  examine  your  soils.  It  will  be 
of  no  use  to  send  a  little  bottle  of  It  to  them,  for  you 
have  probably  a  dozen  sorts  on  a  ten  acre  field.  Es- 
pecially If  you  are  going  to  try  a  home  In  some  other 
part  of  the  country,  find  out  ahead  something  about 
what  you  are  to  cultivate. 

Soil  waste  I  have  said  but  little  about,  but  I  can- 
not close  this  chapter  until  It  Is  discussed  more  care- 


FINDING  AND  MAKING  SOIL      211 

fully.  When  I  first  made  a  serious  business  of  gar- 
dening, I  found  that  the  winter  wash  and  the  spring 
floods  took  off  a  large  part  of  all  that  I  could  add 
during  the  summer.  It  was  carried  down  to  my 
neighbors'  gardens,  or  It  went  Into  the  road  ditches 
and  then  Into  the  flat  lands  near  the  mill  and  then 
was  carted  by  the  wide  awake  miller  to  fatten  his 
potatoes. 

I  found  that  shallow  surface  ditches,  made  by  the 
plow  In  November,  with  some  additional  work  of  the 
shovel,  could  be  made  to  take  this  wash  and  carry  it 
quickly  and  safely  out  of  my  fields.  These  shallow 
sluice-ways  would  disappear  In  the  spring  under  the 
work  of  the  cultivator.  This  will  require  a  little 
careful  study  on  your  part,  but  be  sure  not  to  omit  It. 

So  you  see  that  what  you  want  Is  first  of  all  to 
make  soil,  then  you  must  know  how  to  keep  It,  and 
then  how  to  use  It.  You  must  not  burn  weeds  nor 
leaves.  You  must  use  your  coal  ashes,  specially  If 
your  soil  Is  heavy.  You  must  not  have  a  slop  hole 
near  your  house,  but  must  compost  the  house  waste 
as  well  as  all  other  waste  and  feed  It  to  your  plants. 
Take  off  your  hat  to  the  brains  that  are  at  work 
everywhere  about  you.  Do  not  get  In  the  way  and 
hinder  and  do  not  fail  to  understand. 

Country  home  making  In  America  is  in  its  infancy. 
Our  gardening  Is  still  almost  as  crude  as  that  of  the 
aborigines.  We  waste  shamefully,  and  we  overlook 
our  best  property.     However,  we  are  beginning  to 


212     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

be  able  to  see  the  way  to  make  soil,  to  enrich  soil, 
and  to  use  it  for  all  that  it  is  worth  without  exhaust- 
ing it.  We  shall  soon  have  land  in  the  United  States 
that  will  feed  six  hundred  millions  of  people,  without 
serious  crowding  and  without  pinching  poverty. 


CHAPTER  X 

MANUAL  TRAINING  IN  THE  COUNTRY 
HOME 

WE  are  holding  always  to  the  Idea  that,  in 
the  country,  home  does  not  mean  the  house 
only,  but  the  whole  property,  and  homeful 
it  should  all  be  together.  This  chapter  will  talk  of 
such  accessories  as  are  essential  to  completeness  of 
life,  and  to  enjoyment  as  well  as  labor  —  shops, 
barns,  laboratories,  arboreal  retreats,  electric  plants 
for  lighting  and  irrigating,  and  whatever  else  seems 
essential  to  making  a  home  in  the  country  comfort- 
able and  convenient.  There  really  Is  no  reason  for 
drawing  an  unfavorable  comparison  between  city 
life  and  country  life  as  they  may  be  at  present  en- 
joyed, for  we  now  have  in  the  country  nearly  every 
privilege  that  fifty  years  ago  belonged  to  the  town. 
To  all  this  we  are  able  to  add  a  good  list  of  special 
privileges  that  cannot  be  acquired  by  the  city  resi- 
dent. 

In  the  order  of  Importance  I  would  place  first  of 
all  a  shop,  and  the  purchase  of  shop  tools  should  be 
as  prompt  as  those  for  use  in  the  soil.  It  should 
serve  as  a  schoolhouse  and  a  shop  in  one,  for  manual 
culture  Is  really  educative  for  the  brain  as  well  as  the 

213 


214     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

hands.  A  shop  is  peculiarly  a  developing  affair,  be- 
ginning with  little  more  than  the  storage  of  a  few 
tools  and  a  place  for  filing  saws  and  grinding  scythes, 
but  rapidly  becoming  a  place  for  constructing  all 
sorts  of  boy  ideas  into  workable  forms. 

My  own  shop  was  built  as  a  wing  to  the  barn ;  it 
was  two  stories  in  height  —  the  lower  to  be  the  shop, 
while  the  room  above  was  to  be  the  laboratory. 
Each  room  was  twenty-five  feet  square,  and  the 
ground  floor  was  grouted.  Into  the  shop  the  boys 
were  turned  loose  to  make  their  own  tools  and  every 
way  to  develop  an  inventive  skill.  For  this  reason 
very  few  tools  were  purchased  at  the  outset,  only 
the  material  for  making  tools.  After  awhile  a  gaso- 
line engine  and  lathe  were  purchased,  larger  and 
better  than  they  themselves  could  construct. 

Good  chisels,  screw  drivers,  grafting  sets,  and 
similar  appurtenances  for  indoor  and  outdoor  work 
were  rapidly  added,  invariably  homemade.  Of 
course  repairing  was  in  order  from  the  outset.  Shov- 
els and  hoes  and  plows  were  easily  put  in  order  by 
the  lads,  while  from  the  house  chairs,  tables,  knives, 
etc.,  called  for  their  attention.  All  this  saved  within 
a  year's  time  more  than  the  original  outlay. 

Hand  power  soon  proved  inadequate  to  the  needs 
of  the  young  workmen,  and  an  effort  was  put  forth 
to  use  wind  power  —  brought  down  from  a  boy- 
invented  fan  over  the  roof.  It  worked  of  course  only 
when  the  wind  blew,  and  so  irregularly  that  it  was 
of  very  little  value  to  the  youngsters  below.     When 


MANUAL  TRAINING  215 

given  up,  as  it  soon  was,  the  shafting  was  still  left 
to  pass  through  the  floors,  and  the  fans  continued 
to  tell  which  way  the  wind  blew.  This  was  a  con- 
venience to  a  large  neighborhood.  Standing  very 
high  over  the  valley  it  still  can  be  seen  for  a  half 
a  mile,  and  as  it  turns  with  a  slightly  mournful  sound, 
it  is  known  as  the  "  Old  Cow." 

The  first  Important  effort  on  the  part  of  the  young 
folk  was  to  build  a  two-horse  power  engine,  on  a 
principle  somewhat  different  from  the  engine  that 
had  been  purchased.  It  did  Its  work  fairly  well,  but 
It  called  for  many  a  consultation  both  In  Its  con- 
struction and  In  Its  working.  It  still  remains  to  turn 
the  grindstone,  saw  the  wood,  grind  bones  for  the 
fowls,  cut  fodder  for  the  cows,  and  In  the  autumn  it 
still  crushes  the  waste  apples  for  cider. 

Some  years  later  I  discovered  that  two  of  my  sons 
were  quietly  studying  up  a  scheme  that  called  for  a 
considerable  outlay  of  money  and  time.  One  of 
them  did  most  of  the  planning;  the  other  most  of 
the  work,  as  usual.  This  was  about  the  beginning 
of  the  automobile  evolution,  and  It  was  soon  evident 
that  an  automobile  was  Incubating  In  my  shop.  It 
was  not  a  case  where  the  mountain  labored  and 
brought  forth  a  mouse,  but  the  mouse  labored  and 
brought  forth  a  mountain.  It  certainly  would  go, 
but  like  all  the  early  automobiles,  it  was  liable  to 
run  up  a  tree  rather  than  travel  the  highway. 

No  matter,  the  shop  was  serving  Its  purpose  as  an 
educator,  and  It  was  an  important  accessory  to  a  true 


21 6     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

country  home  life.  Going  by  the  door  one  day,  as 
the  engine  snorted  gas  through  the  exhaust  pipe,  I 
said  to  my  boy,  "  With  your  other  inventions,  try 
for  something  to  prevent  this  confounded  noise." 
The  result  was  a  muffler  which  he  is  now  constructing 
on  a  large  scale,  and  which  seems  likely  to  make  his 
occupation  for  some  years  to  come.  I  am  not  sure 
but  all  this  while,  the  literary  culture  of  my  children 
was  slightly  suffering;  and  yet  I  led  them,  with  tu- 
tors, through  a  very  thorough  course  of  history  and 
language  —  giving  them  mathematics  as  they  needed 
it.  Only  this  was  apparent,  that  they  valued  knowl- 
edge mainly  for  what  they  could  do  with  it.  A 
storage  of  information  did  not  seem  to  be  attractive. 

For  a  college  bred  man,  rather  strongly  addicted 
to  literary  pursuits,  I  had  made  quite  a  divergence 
from  conventional  methods  of  training  young  people. 
It  soon  became  evident  that  through  the  shop  I  was 
likely  to  lose  not  only  from  literary  pursuits,  but 
from  horticultural,  at  least  two  of  my  boys.  How- 
ever, I  looked  out  for  it  that  they  should  carry  off 
with  them  a  thorough  training  in  agriculture  and  such 
a  love  of  Nature  that  they  could  not  become  alien  to 
the  country. 

Meanwhile  the  young  folk  are  kept  at  home  by 
the  variety  that  Is  offered  to  the  mind  and  the  hand. 
Frequently  the  girl  in  the  family  will  prove  to  be 
the  keenest  mathematician  and  the  best  mechanic. 
Intimacy  with  tools  will  bring  out  power,  sharpen 
Intellect,  smooth  passion,  and  sweeten  the  disposition 


MANUAL  TRAINING  217 

that  books  will  sour.  Try  it  with  the  chap  who 
hates  school,  and  do  not  forget  that  the  shop  itself 
is  a  school.  To  develop  the  hand  is  as  important 
as  to  develop  the  brain.  To  learn  to  do  is  better 
than  simply  to  remember.  To  get  the  habit  of  ap- 
plying knowledge  as  quickly  as  acquired  to  everyday 
affairs,  and  in  this  way  using  all  that  you  find  out,  is 
the  one  great  need  in  human  life,  and  It  is  the  real 
education. 

I  believe  In  public  free  schools,  for  in  no  other 
way  can  most  children  get  any  education  worth  while, 
but  I  am  sure  that  the  home  and  the  school  have  been 
too  radically  divorced. 

The  laboratory  Is  closely  associated  with  the  shop, 
and,  as  I  have  told  you,  I  established  such  a  depart- 
ment directly  over  the  shop.  It  soon  became  the  cen- 
ter of  life,  of  discussion,  of  examination,  and  compar- 
ative Investigation.  Those  who  did  not  care  for 
tools  found  that  which  was  both  Interesting  and  use- 
ful in  the  laboratory.  Country  life  is  made  up 
largely  of  flowers.  Insects,  birds,  rocks,  and  the  evo- 
lution which  Is  told  by  the  life  In  animal  and  vege- 
table nature. 

The  country  home  that  knows  nothing  of  these 
things  and  brings  up  Its  children  to  know  a  bird  sim- 
ply as  a  bird,  whether  thrush  or  sparrow;  to  look 
upon  all  Insects  as  merely  bugs  or  bees  or  flies,  is 
stupidly  superficial.  The  very  first  Information  that 
a  boy  should  have  should  concern  Itself  with  soils, 
rocks,  watercourses,  and  generally  with  that  which 


21 8     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

we  call  geology.  It  is  the  science  of  the  stuff  that 
makes  up  the  farm.  There  is  not  a  single  science 
but  has  more  or  less  bearing  upon  country  homes 
and  country  living. 

In  the  country  home  laboratory  we  are  specifically 
studying  home,  and  the  things  that  make  for  home; 
the  pebbles  that  a  boy  naturally  plays  with  and  the 
flowers  that  first  of  all  draw  a  child's  attention.  In 
the  chemistry  corner  we  analyze  the  water  and  the  soil 
and  enter  intimately  into  the  questions  of  health.  In 
the  entomological  corner  we  determine  what  butter- 
flies and  moths  and  bugs  and  beetles  are  our  neigh- 
bors and  how  to  use  them,  as  well  as  keep  the  evil  dis- 
posed from  destroying  our  crops.  In  the  botany  cor- 
ner, where  there  should  be  plenty  of  drawers  and 
boxes,  the  study  of  plants  and  trees  becomes  exceed- 
ingly practical.  They  should  be  studied  not  simply 
as  so  much  vegetation,  but  as  something  that  makes 
up  a  part  of  our  own  home  life.  In  the  geological 
corner  the  rocks  and  rolling  stones  are  to  be  consid- 
ered, the  water  courses,  and  that  wonderful  roll  of 
hills  and  valleys  which  so  accentuates  the  charm  of 
country  living. 

Merely  to  collect  all  the  moths  of  a  section,  or  the 
butterflies  of  a  very  small  section,  and  mount  them 
perfectly  develops  the  esthetic  sense  and  a  taste  for 
the  beautiful.  It  teaches  careful  observation.  In 
the  long  run  accuracy  always  comes  in  ahead  of  smart- 
ness, so  that  this  sort  of  study  does  not  bring  to  the 
front  either  mere  memory  power  or  boldness. 


MANUAL  TRAINING  219 

My  oldest  boy,  at  seventeen,  came  to  me  for  sixty 
dollars  to  put  into  a  few  country  telephones.  This 
was  a  perfectly  natural  outgrowth  of  his  training. 
So  we  took  in  our  neighbors,  and  during  the  next 
five  years  he  strung  us  on  lines  of  communication. 
The  first  rural  telephone  systems  were  being  just  then 
established,  and  he  very  naturally  became  identified 
with  one  of  the  most  beneficent  movements  of  the 
age. 

The  entomologist  was  like  all  the  rest  of  them, 
only  that  his  dealing  with  minuter  stuff  made  him 
more  persistent.  It  Is  astonishing  to  one  who  has 
been  educated  only  with  books  to  find  how  much  in- 
teresting material  there  is  In  the  garden  and  field  to 
one  who  has  been  educated  in  shop  and  laboratory. 
We  who  have  worshiped  only  books  look  with  won- 
der on  those  who  worship  tools.  A  boy  who  puts 
under  his  pillow  at  night  a  new  tool,  Instead  of  the 
latest  novel,  has  a  new  sort  of  probability  ahead  of 
him. 

You  will  surmise  that  drawing  Is  a  very  needful 
adjunct  to  the  studies  that  we  have  assigned  to  this 
room.  Nothing  like  enough  has  been  made  of  the 
pencil  and  the  hand  In  education.  They  should  al- 
ways be  busy  to  help  note  the  peculiarities  and  the 
minute  features  of  anything  that  comes  under  obser- 
vation. The  pencil  Is  also  a  great  educator  In  the 
way  of  teaching  patience,  accuracy,  and  fundamental 
truth.  It  is  a  serious  blunder  to  form  a  habit  of  half 
way  investigating,  and  therefore  of  falsely  judging. 


220     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

Now  in  all  this  matter  of  shop  and  laboratory  we 
are  working  on  the  understanding  that  the  boys  and 
the  girls  must  be  brought  into  intimacy  with  Nature. 
Some  one  has  said  that  if  you  study  a  single  leaf  all 
your  life,  you  will  not  then  know  all  about  it.  A 
Frenchman  wrote  a  book,  entitled  "  The  Population 
of  a  Pear  Tree,"  and  he  made  out  that  his  tree  was 
the  home  of  a  host.  What  is  going  on  over  a  five 
acre  lot  constitutes  a  huge  library  at  first  hand. 

Then  again,  in  the  winter  months,  your  shop  and 
laboratory  constitute  just  the  places  for  more  nature 
study.  If  you  have  an  orchard,  as  of  course  you 
have,  you  can  collect  enough  larvae  or  cocoons  under 
the  bark  to  keep  yourselves  busy  in  the  entomological 
comer.  Chemistry  is  always  in  order,  and  if  you  run 
short  of  object  lessons  go  to  the  shop  and  construct. 
I  do  not  advocate  throwing  out  mathematics  and  his- 
tory, but  you  will  find  that  these  studies  illuminate 
laboratory  work  and  are  Illuminated  by  it. 

The  simplest  way  for  arranging  your  laboratory 
for  work  will  be  to  have  corner  closets.  In  one  of 
these  you  have  a  sufficient  supply  of  bottles  and  pre- 
servative liquids  for  the  most  ordinary  chemical  an- 
alysis. Entomology  needs  its  cabinets,  its  catching 
nets,  and  Its  preparations  for  preparing  what  is 
caught  for  permanent  preservation.  Geological  col- 
lections require  glass  cases  or  simple  shelves,  while  a 
fourth  corner  will  readily  adjust  Itself  with  tables  and 
drawers   for  botanical  work.     None   of  this  work 


Fliotograph   by   Porch. 

CULTIVATE    THE    USE    OF    LABOR-SAVING    MACHINERY 


MANUAL  TRAINING  221 

can  be  hurried,  and  the  apparatus  will  grow  natu- 
rally. 

A  tool  room,  and  a  very  large  one  at  that,  should 
be  adjacent  to  the  shop.  For  the  orchard  we  need 
a  complete  set  of  apparatus  for  spraying.  For  the 
garden  we  want  a  digging  fork,  a  spade,  and  iron 
trowels.  A  sprinkling  pail  should  always  be  on 
hand,  and  a  scythe  should  hang  in  its  corner,  with 
whetstone  in  a  box  adjacent.  The  farm  tools  need 
not  be  costly,  but  it  is  poor  economy  to  have  a  plow 
or  cultivator  or  planter  of  second  class.  Economy  at 
this  point  is  never  desirable.  The  shop  Is  to  see  that 
good  tools  are  always  in  repair. 

So  far  as  teachers  are  concerned,  vei7  little  direct 
instruction  Is  needed,  further  than  to  get  a  good  text 
book  In  each  department,  and  if  possible  secure  a  tu- 
tor who  will  stimulate  work.  There  is  nothing  more 
exciting  for  young  people  than  making  collections  In 
the  field.  A  good  leader  Is  wanted  rather  than  a 
teacher. 

I  recommend  to  those  who  cannot  create  anything 
elaborate  In  the  way  of  shop  or  laboratory,  to  com- 
bine the  two  In  one,  at  least  for  a  while.  Let  this 
be  the  general  proposition,  that  the  young  folks  are 
to  study  first  the  things  that  are  nearest  at  hand  — 
those  under  foot  and  most  observable;  second,  that 
they  study  the  life  that  Is  In  all  things  about  them, 
from  the  worms  In  the  soil  to  the  birds  in  the  trees ; 
that  they  Inquire  Into  the  relations  of  things,  and  what 


22  2     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

the  most  insignificant  are  good  for.  I  would  let 
each  one  have  a  hobby  of  his  own  and  should  rather 
expect  that  he  would. 

Not  very  unlike  this  plan  is  that  which  has  been 
recently  suggested  and  urged,  that  one  half  of  each 
school  day  be  given  to  books  and  the  other  half  used 
in  a  school  garden  and  orchard,  applying  the  facts 
obtained  from  books  and  securing  new  ones.  At  all 
events  you  are  bringing  along  muscular  power  with 
brain  power,  and  are  at  the  same  time  making  home 
something  exceedingly  attractive  to  your  boys.  Apart 
from  the  cash  problem,  which  we  shall  consider  an- 
other month,  we  are  getting  a  very  different  sort  of 
country  home  from  that  which  follows  the  ordinary 
method  of  sharply  dividing  school  and  home. 

With  a  laboratory  and  shop  attachment  for  every 
country  home,  I  think  we  should  not  hear  again  from 
Secretary  Wilson  that  the  city  is  draining  the  country 
of  its  best  brains  and  blood.  At  any  rate  do  not 
feed  your  boys  and  girls  on  that  false  and  shallow 
literature  which  teaches  that  the  country  boy  who  can 
escape  from  the  farm  is  rising  in  the  world.  He  is 
at  the  top  of  the  heap  who  does  his  duty  and  uses  his 
faculties  for  the  best  purposes,  making  the  most  of 
the  world  about  him  and  living  temperately. 

We  have  come  across  the  effort  to  use  wind  power 
in  our  discussion  of  the  shop.  No  country  home  can 
be  anywhere  near  complete  without  the  control  of 
some  power  supplementary  to  man  power  and  woman 
power.     Even  the  old  dog  churn  served  a  good  pur- 


MANUAL  TRAINING  2231 

pose,  and  the  dog  power  still  stands  for  a  large  fac- 
tor In  Belgian  country  life.  Wind  power  is  of  course 
irregular,  but  in  many  cases  it  is  the  best  thing  that 
the  farmer  or  country  home  maker  can  secure.  With 
it  he  can  generally  keep  a  water  tank  filled  (by  means 
of  a  windmill),  and  the  water  from  this  tank  can 
empty  its  contents  through  pipes  into  his  kitchen  and 
possibly  any  room  of  his  house.  This  will  save  a  lot 
of  pumping. 

Unfortunately  steam  power  has  been  from  the  out- 
set almost  strictly  a  town  privilege.  It  could  not  be 
carried  for  effective  application  more  than  a  few 
rods.  In  this  way  steam  power  drew  the  Industries 
into  huge  buildings  and  built  up  great  factories,  at 
the  same  time  emptying  our  country  homes  of  nearly 
all  their  most  attractive  employments. 

Fortunately  electricity  is  a  distributive  force  and 
can  be  carried  almost  anywhere  and  to  any  distance. 
We  can  get  Niagara  to  do  its  work  In  the  center  of 
New  York  State  and  can  distribute  Its  power  among 
the  farmers'  homes.  The  French  Republic  sells  elec- 
tric power  derived  from  Its  canals  to  the  adjacent 
farmers,  giving  them  force  enough  to  run  machinery 
both  outdoors  and  In.  Wherever  there  Is  a  stream 
that  tumbles  down  hill  you  have  power,  and  that 
power  can  be  carried  over  Into  the  barns  and  houses. 
Many  a  farmer  has  a  brook  of  this  sort  which  Is  now 
giving  only  water  for  his  cattle,  or  possibly  a  little 
poetry  to  his  daily  life.  If  it  can  be  made  to  develop 
two  or  more  horse  power,  it  is  an  easy  matter  to  Install 


2  24     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

a  dynamo  that  will  carry  power  for  lighting  his 
house  and  operating  his  machinery. 

You  can  scarcely  overestimate  the  advantage  of 
some  such  power  In  removing  every  sentiment  of 
drudgery  from  daily  life.  It  will  run  the  feed  mills, 
the  pumps,  the  threshing  machines,  the  corn  shellers ; 
Indoors,  It  will  wash  the  dishes  and  do  the  cleaning 
as  well  as  carpet  and  floor  scrubbing.  It  fits  nicely 
to  the  work  done  in  the  shop,  beside  doing  some  of 
the  shop  work. 

I  note  that  two  neighbors  in  central  New  York 
have  secured  power  enough  from  a  brook,  that  for 
ages  has  only  tumbled  down  a  glen  and  run  through 
a  meadow,  to  light  all  their  buildings,  do  a  large 
share  of  the  home  work  —  and  after  harnessing  it, 
they  have  sold  power  to  their  neighbors.  From 
western  New  York  comes  a  story  that  shows  how  half 
a  dozen  or  more  country  home  makers  can  cooperate 
to  the  same  end.  It  goes  a  long  way  toward  solving 
the  terrible  help  problem,  not  only  in  the  field  but  in 
the  kitchen.  The  housewife  can  get  more  work  out 
of  a  brook  than  out  of  a  dozen  Bridgets. 

In  my  Florida  home  we  are  making  our  slxty-five- 
foot  well  cooperate  with  a  gasoline  engine  and  dy- 
namo, not  only  to  serve  water  for  the  household,  but 
to  give  us  electric  lights,  Independent  of  any  town  or 
neighborhood  plant.  Mr.  F.  O.  Kennedy,  of  Or- 
ange County,  Vt.,  reports  that  his  wife  cooks,  washes, 
and  Irons,  besides  running  a  vacuum  cleaner,  by  eleci 
triclty,  while  he  separates  milk  and  milks  his  cows 


MANUAL  TRAINING  225 

with  electric  power.  His  home  farm  comprises  two 
hundred  and  sixty-three  acres,  but  he  adds  that  hav- 
ing electricity  to  run  his  machinery,  he  hires  very  lit- 
tle help  except  in  haying  and  harvesting.  Where 
there  are  electric  companies,  with  electric  plants,  it 
is  not  infrequent  that  you  can  purchase  power  enough, 
at  a  reasonable  rate,  for  lighting  buildings  and  doing 
a  large  share  of  your  work.  This  of  course  is  an  easy 
way  of  settling  the  help  problem. 

The  original  cost  of  a  gasoline  engine  that  will  do 
your  ordinary  farm  work  will  not  exceed  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  dollars,  for  a  two-  or  three-horse 
power  machine.  Not  seldom  you  can  purchase  one 
at  a  very  much  reduced  rate.  Even  if  it  does  no 
more  than  run  your  grindstone,  your  chum,  your 
washing  machine,  besides  waiting  on  the  boys  in  the 
shop  and  cutting  feed  for  the  horses  and  cows,  it  will 
serve  a  satisfactory  purpose.  But  in  selecting  an  en- 
gine it  will  be  better  to  get  one  large  enough  to  work 
easily,  especially  as  a  larger  engine  is  less  likely  to 
get  out  of  repair. 

If  you  have  a  flowing  well,  such  as  is  very  common 
in  the  celery  fields  of  Florida,  the  problem  is  solved 
for  you,  but  otherwise  a  storage  tank  becomes  an  es- 
sential. This  tank  must  of  course  be  filled  either 
by  hand  power  or  electric  power,  or  by  a  gasoline 
engine.  If  you  have  a  gasoline  engine,  of  course  you 
have  only  to  attach  a  hose  and  carry  the  water  where 
you  like.  You  can  at  least  take  good  care  of  a  straw- 
berry bed  a  few  yards  square,  and  in  such  a  case  a 


226     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

large  part  of  the  work  could  be  done  by  forcing  the 
water  into  tiles,  these  being  set  on  a  slight  slope  and 
so  constructed  as  to  let  the  water  flow  at  stated 
points. 

Among  country  home  accessories  the  barn  is  about 
as  old  as  the  house,  and  for  some  reason  or  other 
it  has  remained  just  a  barn  —  a  building  to  hold  hay 
and  straw  and  without  the  least  chance  to  please  any- 
thing excepting  horses  and  cows.  If  it  Is  comforta- 
ble and  decent  It  Is  held  to  be  satisfactory.  I  do  not 
think  that  the  coming  country  home  will  be  satisfied 
with  anything  of  this  sort.  The  barn  may  become 
the  center  of  attraction,  not  only  on  account  of  such 
accessories  as  laboratory  and  shop,  but  owing  to  the 
beauty  of  its  structure  and  Its  fitness  to  all  the  other 
buildings.  A  stable  should  be  not  only  cleanly,  but 
capable  of  perfect  ventilation,  while  every  cow  and 
horse  should  have  abundant  light.  There  Is  no  un- 
conquerable reason  why  the  windows  should  be  cov- 
ered with  cobwebs  and  dust. 

A  horse  enjoys  an  occasional  bath  just  as  much  as 
a  human  being,  if  given  with  discretion  and  In  the 
warm  sunshine.  I  have  not  gone  so  far  as  to  give 
the  same  privilege  to  my  Jersey  and  Holstein  grade, 
but  I  see  no  reason  why  they  would  not  welcome  it. 
Can  you  tell  me  why  every  American  stable  should 
not  be  kept  as  clean  as  those  In  the  dairy  sections  of 
England,  swept  as  cleanly  as  a  house,  and  brushed  to 
prevent  the  accumulation  of  dust?  The  carriage  and 
wagon  floors  should  certainly  never  be  allowed  to  ac- 


MANUAL  TRAINING  227 

cumulate  a  load  of  clay  or  filth.  This  seems  like  an 
impossibility  to  the  average  home  keeper,  who  is 
generally  short  of  help.  Let  your  barn  floor  be 
made  extra  tight,  and  then  carry  to  it  the  hose  from 
your  gasoline  engine  or  water  tank,  and  you  may 
clean  it  without  serious  labor  on  your  own  part  and 
without  much  delay. 

A  dirty  barn  is  like  a  dirty  house,  simply  a  matter 
of  habit.  Keep  a  good  broom  at  hand,  and  "  brush 
out  "  as  the  housewife  brushes  the  kitchen  and  porch, 
as  soon  as  she  is  abroad  in  the  morning.  The  barn 
lawns  can  be  kept  just  as  tidy  as  those  about  the  house 
and  with  very  little  outlay  of  time  and  work.  The 
gain  will  far  outbalance  the  cost,  and  especially  in  the 
way  of  creating  a  tidy  and  comfortable  sentiment 
about  the  homestead.  I  have  no  fancy  notions  about 
this  matter,  but  I  am  sure  that  every  one  will  be  sur- 
prised at  the  great  improvement  he  can  make  at  lit- 
tle cost. 

I  have  before  spoken  of  the  enormous  crops  one 
can  gather  from  the  walls  of  house,  barns,  and  other 
outbuildings.  You  can  never  get  too  many  good 
grapes,  as  they  are  valuable  for  all  sorts  of  purposes. 
Nor  do  I  see  why  they  should  not  be  so  abundant  as 
to  be  very  free  for  your  help  as  well  as  for  your  fam- 
ily. If  you  will  run  wires  parallel  to  each  other,  all 
the  way  around  your  barn,  or  any  other  outbuilding, 
you  may  attach  vines  until  the  whole  becomes  an  ar- 
bor. I  find  that  in  this  way  I  am  able  to  grow  most 
superb  Lindleys  and  Gaertners  and  Brightens  with 


228     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

Niagaras;  even  Jeifersons,  that  do  not  ripen  well  in 
vineyards,  will  come  to  perfection. 

During  the  summer  you  will  only  be  compelled  to 
go  over  these  vines,  reaching  them  with  a  ladder,  two 
or  three  times  from  May  till  August  —  tying  the 
runners  and  occasionally  thinning  the  clusters.  You 
will  be  sure  to  get  your  very  best  clusters,  most  per- 
fectly colored  and  ripened,  on  your  buildings.  The 
vineyard  will  not  be  able  to  compete.  If  the  vines 
are  planted  in  the  barnyard,  you  must  box  them  until 
they  get  out  of  reach  of  the  animals,  that  is,  till  the 
vines  are  ten  or  twelve  feet  high.  Let  the  boxes  be 
such  as  will  admit  more  or  less  light,  but  will  not  ad- 
mit the  inquisitive  tongue  of  your  pet  Ayrshire.  A 
decently  arranged  home  will  teach  the  young  folk  to 
handle  food  of  this  sort  conservatively,  but  let  them 
prefer  grapes  to  tobacco. 

Let  us  get  this  matter  comprehensively  in  mind; 
a  group  comprismg  a  shop,  a  laboratory,  a  Jersey 
apartment,  a  horse  room,  a  hen  room,  all  with  pleas- 
ant windows,  and  a  tool  room  close  by  the  shop  — 
this  is  a  real  barn.  The  whole  of  this  is  to  be  sur- 
rounded by  preference  with  apple  trees;  or  with 
plums  and  shrubs,  while  vines  cover  the  whole,  bear- 
ing grapes  —  I  should  like  to  say  tons  of  grapes,  for 
really  it  will  be  something  of  that  sort  if  your  vines 
are  properly  cared  for.  I  have  not  sketched  the 
buildings  required  for  a  large  farm,  but  those  be- 
longing naturally  to  the  small  country  home,  such 


MANUAL  TRAINING  229 

as  we  hope  to  multiply  very  rapidly,  to  relieve  con- 
gested city  life. 

Among  the  smaller  appurtenances  of  the  country 
home  are  a  hot  bed,  a  seed  bed,  a  nursery,  and  ar- 
bors. A  hot  bed  is  a  box  of  almost  any  form,  set 
over  a  fermenting  bed  of  horse  manure,  while  this 
is  overlaid  with  very  fine  soil.  Here  you  enjoy  your- 
self sowing  your  choicest  seeds  and  those  that  must 
be  started  before  frost  is  entirely  out  of  the  land. 
Here  also  you  place  those  seeds  that  are  so  fine  that 
they  cannot  be  trusted  in  the  open  ground  during 
dashing  showers.  Every  country  home  can  easily 
have  a  little  hot  bed  of  this  sort,  if  nothing  more 
than  a  drygoods  box  sunk  in  the  soil,  and  covered 
with  an  old  window  sash.  Much  better  is  it  to  build 
a  little  brick  or  concrete  lean-to  against  the  barn. 

A  seed  bed  differs  from  a  hot  bed  In  this,  that  It 
is  a  little  nook  of  ground,  or  a  corner  of  the  garden, 
so  arranged  that  you  can  cover  it  If  necessary.  It 
must  contain  very  finely  prepared  soil,  where  you  can 
test  new  seeds.  It  Is  not  the  mere  starting  of  choice 
seeds  that  we  are  after,  but  to  form  a  habit  of  saving 
the  finest  seeds  of  the  finest  fruits  that  we  eat  and  giv- 
ing them  a  chance  to  grow  and  show  what  Is  In  them. 
Did  you  ever  think  what  wonderful  possibilities  are 
thrown  away  in  the  seeds  that  are  wasted? 

You  have  learned  that  no  two  of  the  seeds  of  an 
apple  or  pear  will  produce  trees  and  fruits  that  are 
Identical,  or  are  like  the  fruit  from  which  they  came, 


230     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

so  you  see  you  are  always  on  the  track  of  new  things. 
As  it  will  take  several  years  for  apple  seeds  to  develop 
into  bearing  trees,  you  can  meanwhile  be  at  work 
with  rose  seeds  or  with  plum  stones,  or  with  the 
seeds  of  any  bush  or  shrub,  and  my  word  for  it  you 
will  develop  some  line  things.  Label  everything 
that  you  plant,  with  stakes  in  which  you  have  inserted 
bits  of  zinc  on  which  you  write  with  a  pencil. 

Everywhere  novelties  and  improved  varieties  are 
finding  their  way  in  spite  of  the  number  that  are  de- 
stroyed. In  Florida  we  have  recently  obtained  a 
nearly  seedless  grapefruit  and  an  orange  with  hon- 
eyed sweetness.  In  the  North  we  are  guided  by  the 
fact  that  Nature  manages  to  produce  something 
choice  in  fence  corners  and  out  of  the  way  places. 
This  was  the  way  we  got  the  Seckel  pear  and  the  Con- 
cord grape. 

Right  alongside  your  seed  beds,  have  an  equally 
well  prepared  plot  for  starting  cuttings.  Almost  all 
our  fruits  and  shrubs  can  be  propagated  in  this  man- 
ner, but  more  particularly  grapes,  figs,  mulberries, 
and  quinces.  Make  the  cuttings  from  one  foot  to 
two  feet  in  length  and  insert  them  two-thirds  in  the 
soil,  pressing  it  very  tight  about  them.  In  a  few 
years  you  will  have  all  the  trees  and  vines  that  you 
need  to  plant  or  sell  or  give  away. 

Still  one  more  plot,  and  it  should  be  a  tidy  little 
place,  where  you  create  a  nursery.  This  differs  from 
the  plots  already  described,  because  here  you  grow 
young  trees  or  bushes  that  you  have  collected  and  put 


MANUAL  TRAINING  231 

thcin  through  a  period  of  testing.  You  can  collect 
no  end  of  these  In  your  shrubbery,  and  when  you  are 
accustomed  to  looking  for  them,  you  will  find  them 
everywhere  —  asking  you  to  give  them  room  and  a 
chance.  These  three  plots  of  ground  should  con- 
stitute a  pet  retreat  for  both  work  and  study  — 
especially  In  your  old  age.  They  will  ultimately  be 
a  source  of  considerable  Income,  as  well  as  of  immense 
pleasure. 

I  do  not  think  much  of  arbors,  that  Is  of  wooden 
affairs,  conventionally  set  up  to  adorn  the  grounds, 
but  rarely  used.  Nature  does  much  better  with  a 
lot  of  thorn  trees  and  grape  vines  —  that  Is  living 
arbors.  You  can  yourself  make  a  living  arbor  by 
planting  a  circle  of  evergreens,  rather  closely  to- 
gether, with  a  diameter  of  about  twenty  feet.  As 
the  evergreens  grow,  the  interior  limbs,  interlock- 
ing, will  die  out  at  the  bottom,  and  must  be  re- 
moved. Overhead  they  will  lock  together,  and  you 
will  have   a   most  complete   and   shaded  retreat. 

I  can  show  you  a  living  arbor  with  the  roof  fifty 
feet  above  the  floor  and  carpeted  with  several  Inches 
of  spruce  needles.  Squirrels  like  it,  and  a  catbird 
calls  It  home.  Here  you  may  swing  a  hammock 
If  you  please,  and  the  bird  looking  down  through 
the  glinting  shadows,  will  sing  you  any  song  that 
you  will  whistle  back  to  him. 

I  am  aware  that  I  have  not  outlined  for  you  a 
country  home  that  will  suit  the  victims  of  conven- 
tionalism, nor  have  I  tried  to  do  it.     I  have  aimed 


232     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

to  show  how  a  much  more  complete  home  life  may 
be  lived  than  is  ordinarily  lived;  how  the  idea  of 
a  simple  home  life  may  take  in  thinking  and  loving 
and  doing  altogether;  how  rehgion  and  art  and  sci- 
ence may  pull  together  in  our  daily  lives;  and  how 
this  sort  of  a  home  will  fascinate  the  young  people, 
keep  them  out  of  mischief,  and  make  them  love  home 
better  than  any  other  spot  in  the  world. 


CHAPTER  XI 
FINE  ARTS  OF  A  COUNTRY  HOME 

THE  old  fashioned  country  home  was  rich  in 
arts,  both  indoors  and  out.  The  Connecti- 
cut boy  was  trained  not  only  to  farm  the 
land,  but  to  some  additional  employment  for  rainy 
days,  for  he  well  understood  that  he  must  lose  no  time 
if  he  would  fare  well  in  a  busy  world.  If  it  rained 
he  sat  down  to  a  shoe  bench  and  with  no  mean  skill 
made  or  mended  shoes  for  his  family  and  neighbors. 
He  could  shoe  a  horse  if  it  came  to  a  pinch,  and 
there  were  few  articles  of  furniture  in  his  house  that 
were  not  made  by  his  hands.  Others  made  brooms, 
or  even  clocks;  only  they  made  hay  while  the  sun 
shone.  I  well  remember  one  whose  pastures  were 
filled  with  sheep  and  when  he  killed  one  for  family 
use  the  skin  was  tanned  in  a  home  vat,  with  bark 
ground  by  a  home  brook,  under  a  crusher  worked 
out  of  a  conglomerate  that  he  had  himself  quarried 
from  his  own  glen. 

His  wife  washed  and  carded  the  wool,  spun  the 
fleecy  roll,  wove  the  yarn  into  cloth  or  carpets,  and 
sewed  what  she  had  created  into  homeful  garments. 
It  was  little  that  such  a  family  had  to  buy.     I  am 

233 


234     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

sorry  for  anyone  who  cannot  remember  candle  dip- 
ping or  wool  dyeing  or  soap  making.  Each  of  these 
household  arts  had  its  own  day,  generally  twice  a 
year.  Candles,  to  save  time,  were  always  dipped  in 
the  evening  after  the  milk  was  cared  for  and  the 
daily  tasks  were  ended.  A  dozen  long  wicks  were 
attached  to  a  rod  and  these  were  dipped  into  the 
melted  tallow  and  lifted  out  long  enough  to  cool. 
Once,  twice,  three  times,  I  do  not  remember  rightly, 
but  I  think  that  it  took  twenty  or  thirty  dips  before 
candles  were  of  the  right  size,  and  then  they  were 
left  over  night  to  get  cold  and  solid. 

Lye  was  first  made  by  leaching  home-made  ashes 
and  the  soap  was  made  In  the  back  yard,  boiled  in 
a  huge  iron  kettle.  It  was  not  so  interesting  and 
as  I  remember  this  soap  of  a  Sunday  morning  at 
the  weekly  round-up  of  all  the  children,  It  got  into 
our  eyes  and  we  spluttered  and  spat  —  always  in 
vain.  Sometimes,  to  save  time,  we  recited  our  Sun- 
day-school verses  at  the  same  time.  Those  were  days 
of  economy.  We  prayed  while  we  plowed  and  said 
over  our  spiritual  lessons  while  we  milked;  we  had 
no  time  for  one  thing  alone. 

Ashes  that  were  not  needed  for  lye  were  sold  to 
make  pearlash  or  saleratus;  lime,  while  not  quite 
a  home  product,  was  made  cooperatively.  What- 
ever things  we  could  not  ourselves  make  we  swapped 
for;  honey  for  lime,  and  eggs  for  sugar.  When  a 
calf  was  killed  one  quarter  was  reserved  for  home 
use,  but  three  were  sent  to  neighbors  who  had  agreed 


FINE  ARTS  OF  A  COUNTRY  HOME     235 

to  replace  them  when  their  turn  should  come  to  kill 
a  fatted  calf. 

Making  sugar  was  also  a  domestic  affair.  Nearly 
everyone  had  his  own  maple  bush  or  grove.  Fifty 
trees,  at  four  pounds  each,  would  make  sugar  enough 
for  a  large  family.  The  whole  affair  was  a  romance 
from  the  tapping  of  the  trees  to  the  final  "  sugar- 
ing-off."  In  these  days  no  one  knows  of  these  things, 
but  I  advise  you  to  buy  a  gallon  of  maple  syrup  and 
have  a  "  sugaring-off  "  before  you  die.  That  and 
samp  will  make  life  seem  a  deal  longer  and  worth 
the  while.  Get  some  old  farmer  to  show  you  the  way 
it  was  done.  ^ 

"  Samp !  "  Why  that  was  our  ambrosia,  fit  for 
the  gods  who  dwell  in  the  country  a-nd  plant  gar- 
dens. It  was  made  of  the  selectest  ears  of  corn, 
dried  by  the  stove,  shelled  by  the  owner,  ground  by 
itself,  so  as  not  to  be  mixed  in  the  miller's  hopper  with 
all  sorts  of  corn,  and  then  with  the  finer  meal  sifted 
out  it  was  boiled  all  day  in  an  iron  pot  on  the  back 
of  the  stove.  It  was  stirred  by  everyone  who  passed 
near  the  stove  and  after  twelve  hours  cooking  it 
was  samp.  Alas,  the  art  Is  lost.  Wendell  Phillips 
wrote  about  the  lost  arts  of  Egypt,  but  we  also  have 
lost  arts  in  America. 

Bee-keeping  supplemented  sugar  making,  but  we 
have  that  yet,  bless  the  Lord  !  No  one  has  been  able 
to  make  honey  like  the  bees,  although  there  have 
been  some  attempts  I  believe. 

We  had  no  creameries  in  those  days,  but  each 


236     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

family  made  its  own  butter  and  its  own  cheese  and 
the  rivalry  was  worth  the  while  I  assure  you.  Girls 
were  not  ashamed  to  call  the  cows  and  then  to  draw 
the  milk  from  the  udder  with  freshly  washed  hands. 
They  were  proud  of  the  great  white  loaves  of  bread 
that  they  could  pile  on  the  shelves  and  the  rolls  of 
golden  butter  that  mated  them.  We  never  then 
heard  of  foul  milk  that  must  be  sterilized  before  us- 
ing; that  did  not  come  in  until  the  hayfield  and  the 
barn  and  the  kitchen  were  given  over  to  "  help  " — 
unclean,  uncouth,  and  untrained  —  a  generation  that 
knew  not  the  art  of  the  milkmaid. 

Such  was  the  life  of  our  fathers  and  mothers,  not 
at  all  the  hard  unpoetic  life  that  has  often  been  pic- 
tured, for  a  sweeter  and  more  wholesome  life  than 
that  which  was  lived  by  those  who  pioneered  out  of 
New  England  across  the  continent,  planting  States 
and  creating  everywhere  country  homes,  never  ex- 
isted. Then  came  steam  power  and,  we  did  not 
understand  why,  but  one  after  another  of  these  home 
arts  went  away  from  us ;  carding,  spinning,  shoemak- 
ing,  furniture  making,  and  at  last  even  sewing  and 
knitting;  all  of  these  went  out  of  home  life  into  huge 
factories,  around  which  clustered  the  dull  sleeping 
and  eating  places  that  were  called  homes.  The  spin- 
ning wheel  went  to  the  attic  and  the  soap  barrel  to 
kindling  wood.  Our  mothers  no  longer  knitted  as 
they  walked  through  the  streets  to  make  a  friendly 
call.  They  no  longer  swapped  pinks  and  hollyhocks 
and  boiled  down  syrup  over  the  kitchen  fire. 


Photograph   by  Paul   Thompson. 

A  BROOK  COMBINES  BEAUTY  AND  USEFULNESS 


FINE  ARTS  OF  A  COUNTRY  HOME     237 

It  left  a  lonesome  home,  where  there  was  little 
that  was  interesting  to  be  done  and  all  things  were 
toil.  The  wife  no  longer  wove  and  the  daughter 
no  longer  milked,  although  the  very  word  wife  was 
originally  weaver  and  the  origin  of  the  word  daugh- 
ter, away  back  in  early  Aryan  life,  was  milker. 
Everything  lost  track  of  itself  and  words  lost  their 
meaning.  Swapping  made  way  for  that  sort  of 
commerce  which  needs  money,  and  the  simple  hearted 
home  keepers  knew  not  what  to  do  with  this  paper 
stufF.  Having  a  bunch  of  it  when  the  hops  or  the 
plums  brought  a  good  price,  they  bought  pianos  to 
stand  where  the  spinning  wheel  had  stood.  On  these 
after  a  while  the  auctioneer  played  and  the  heartsick 
owner  went  into  the  city  to  find  work. 

Steam  not  only  took  away  country  industries,  but 
so  exalted  town  employments  as  to  concentrate  wealth 
and  multiply  by  contrast  town  privileges.  The  city 
was  drawing  the  best  blood  and  the  brightest  brains 
away  from  the  country.  Its  churches  got  the  chief 
talent  and  then  the  country  churches  died  all  over 
the  hillsides  and  in  the  villages  they  just  kept  alive 
—  to  little  purpose.  Music  of  the  highest  order  was 
heard  only  In  the  larger  towns  and  the  help  of  skilled 
physicians  could  be  reached  only  at  great  cost. 

One  weekly  newspaper  reached  the  country  family 
and  a  letter  now  and  then  that  cost  the  receiver 
eighteen  and  three  quarter  cents  for  postage.  Even 
when  this  was  lowered  to  a  reasonable  cost,  he  must 
drive  or  walk  five  or  ten  miles  to  his  postoffice.     His 


238     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

city  cousin  read  his  morning  paper  over  his  coffee 
and  felt  that  he  alone  was  "  in  the  world."  This 
would  not  have  been  so  bad  if  the  country  dweller, 
beside  isolation,  had  not  felt  that  he  was  "  out  of 
the  world." 

In  this  way  steam  had  incidentally  the  effect  of  so 
depressing  country  life  that  the  farmer  became  Old 
Hayseed.  Farms  were  sold  at  half  cost  and  hun- 
dreds of  fairly  good  New  England  homesteads  were 
deserted  entirely.  Some  of  the  New  England  States 
published  annually  a  list  of  deserted  homes  —  given 
up  because  there  was  no  sale  for  them  and  the  owners 
were -tired  of  the  hard  life  lived  on  them.  They  had 
gone  West  to  more  fertile  soil,  yet  in  Kansas  in  1890 
they  fed  wheat  to  their  hogs  and  corn  brought  so  low 
a  price  that  it  was  burned  for  fuel.  Nearly  seventy 
per  cent  of  the  increase  of  population  was  rushing 
into  city  life  and  there  congestion  grew  sickening. 

These  old  arts  of  the  country  home  went  to  stay 
—  most  of  them.  It  will  not  pay  us  now  to  try  to 
restore  them.  The  spinning  wheel  cannot  be  re- 
called so  long  as  a  single  machine,  driven  by  steam, 
can  do  the  work  of  ten  thousand  of  them.  When 
some  English  folk  thought  to  do  this,  they  could  not 
find  a  single  wheel  in  all  Lancashire.  We  keep  them 
now  only  as  interesting  relics  of  arts  that  are  lost. 
We  can  buy  soap  much  cheaper  than  we  can  make 
it,  and  candles  remain  only  in  ecclesiastical  lingerie. 

I  am  not  sure  that  it  is  worth  the  while  to  put 


FINE  ARTS  OF  A  COUNTRY  HOME     239 

sewing  lessons  into  our  schools,  for  needle  art  will  not 
regain  its  domestic  value.  So  with  knitting  and  with 
penmanship.  Machinery  is  everywhere.  The  type- 
writer has  driven  out  the  quill  and  even  spelling  is 
no  longer  of  as  much  value  as  the  skill  of  the  sten- 
ographer on  the  keys.  If  my  boy  spells  phonetically 
instead  of  lexicographically  I  am  not  sure  but  he  is 
right.  We  must  keep  our  eyes  in  our  foreheads  and 
look  out  for  new  ways  of  doing  things  as  well  as 
new  tools  to  do  with. 

The  newer  day  is  surely  coming  in,  a  day  full  of 
new  domestic  arts.  It  will  not  recall  the  old,  not 
to  any  fulness;  but  the  coming  country  life  will  be 
very  full  of  fine  arts,  that  will  reawaken  content  with 
country  living,  while  interest  in  domestic  affairs  will 
be  as  great  as  in  former  days,  or  more  so.  No,  we 
are  not  going  to  adopt  city  arts  nor  city  ways,  we 
have  no  need  in  the  country  for  three  changes  of 
dress  in  a  day  and  as  for  automobiles,  well,  I  sup- 
pose that  soon  they  will  be  built  cheaper  than  horses 
can  be  bred. 

It  was  between  1880  and  1890  that  country  trou- 
bles culminated.  About  1890  the  trolley  began  to 
run  its  fingers  in  among  the  hills,  to  find  our  isolated 
homes,  and  link  them  to  each  other  and  to  the  town. 
About  the  same  time  an  inspired  Postmaster  General 
inaugurated  rural  free  mail  delivery.  It  looked  to 
be  paternalistic,  and  some  called  it  a  socialistic  move- 
ment, but  soon  the  carrier  came,  to  carry  cosmopoli- 


240     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

tan  privileges  to  those  whose  homes  had  been  hid 
in  the  most  remote  corners  and  in  the  back  woods. 
The  day  had  dawned  for  evening  up. 

Isolation  was  completely  banished  and  when  the 
rural  telephone  strung  our  homes  on  wires  that  talk 
and  a  little  home  under  the  elms  expanded  to  take 
in  the  whole  land  at  once,  we  knew  that  a  new  sort 
of  age  had  begun.  Now  I  may  call  up  Boston  be- 
fore breakfast;  or,  in  the  afternoon,  I  may  visit  my 
friend  in  Chicago,  without  travel  or  cost  —  almost. 
This  is  the  first  chapter  and  it  means  that  we  are 
privileged  to  partake  with  the  city  and  to  share  in 
everything  that  constitutes  modern  civic  life.  The 
trolley  carries  us  to  the  market  town  every  half 
hour  and  once  a  day  the  carrier  brings  the  news  from 
Mongolia,  Calcutta,  New  York,  London,  and  Wash- 
ington. We  know  what  Congress  is  doing  as  soon 
as  our  city  cousins.  The  telephone  has  brought  us 
quite  close  to  legislation  and  the  farmer  has  a  potent 
say  at  every  capital. 

But  this  is  by  no  means  all,  for  the  country  home 
has  much  that  the  city  has  not  and  never  can  have. 
It  not  only  has  its  brooks  and  its  groves  and  its  fresh 
brewed  air,  but  it  has  a  lot  of  new  industries  that 
wonderfully  well  fill  the  place  of  those  we  lost  half  a 
hundred  years  ago.  The  McCormick  reaper  began 
a  change  in  the  way  of  tools  and  the  exploitation 
of  energy.  It  lifted  up  the  man  with  the  sickle 
and  cradle  and  bade  him  ride.  The  age  of  horse 
power  tools  was   followed  by  electric  power  tools, 


FINE  ARTS  OF  A  COUNTRY  HOME     241 

but  I  have  said  enough  of  this  under  the  discussion 
of  shops. 

Exactly  what  is  to  come  out  of  the  telephone, 
trolley,  and  mail  delivery  is  not  by  any  means  yet 
evident.  The  telephone  is  already  connecting  us 
with  the  market,  so  as  to  free  us  from  the  wiles  of 
speculators.  My  customers  can  call  on  me  any  day 
for  fruit.  If  I  wish  for  a  teamster  I  am  sure  that 
O'Brien  has  a  telephone  in  his  house. 

As  for  the  trolley,  it  is  now  hauling  long  lines  of 
Ohio  wagons,  geared  to  the  track  and  loaded  with 
produce,  into  the  market  cities.  The  carrier  will 
soon  go  by  automobile  through  his  district,  not  only 
with  letters  and  papers,  but  with  parcels.  Nor  can 
my  distaste  for  this  dust-raising  vehicle  shut  my  eyes 
to  the  fact  that  it  belongs  essentially  to  the  country. 
The  railroad  car  must  follow  tracks  from  town  to 
town,  but  the  automobile  with  Its  gasoline  power  or 
electricity  goes  where  It  pleases  —  regardless  of  the 
city. 

In  some  ways  the  new  country  home  will  be  no 
more  interesting  than  the  old  time  house,  but  It  will 
always  have  a  bathroom,  more  surely  than  it  will  have 
a  library,  and  it  will  have  wider  verandas,  with  a 
distinct  understanding  that  the  first  aim  of  the  house- 
hold Is  to  secure  health.  We  shall  live  out  of  doors 
and  we  shall  know  how  to  gather  about  us  more 
liberally  what  Nature  and  Art  offer  to  make  life  sweet 
and  wholesome. 

The  new  country  life  will  expect  the  home  maker 


242     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

to  be  a  student  of  the  landscape,  not  merely  to  hire 
a  landscape  gardener.  Nothing  can  be  more  dole- 
ful than  living  In  a  house  that  was  planned  by  some- 
body else,  unless  it  be  walking  around  grounds  that 
you  had  no  hand  or  thought  In  laying  out;  no  wish 
anywhere ;  not  a  longing  put  in  shape  —  somebody 
else's  longings  and  whims  for  your  occupation.  Try- 
ing will  soon  make  you  skilful  and  witty  in  the  mak- 
ing of  gardens  and  lawns,  if  you  put  your  hands  and 
brains  together.  And  after  a  while  you  will  get 
in  love  with  this  sort  of  country  living  and  doing. 

Forestry  also  comes  within  the  circuit  of  the  home 
maker's  work.  Wind-breaks  will  be  made  more  of  as 
the  wilderness  is  swept  away.  Let  Nature  have  a 
free  hand  along  your  lines  and  plant  defenses  against 
the  storm.  We  may  prefer  her  mixture  of  ever- 
greens and  wild  cherries,  or  we  may  choose  to  plant 
a  wall  of  crab-apples  fronted  with  bush  honey- 
suckles. Everywhere  there  is  country  art,  for  Na- 
ture herself  Is  preeminently  an  artist. 

You  will  fail  of  making  a  country  home  if  you 
fall  to  appreciate  the  art  that  is  contained  In  all  the 
life  about  you.  A  robin's  nest  is  simplicity  and  rus- 
ticity Itself,  but  whoever  saw  a  nest  full  of  those 
blue  eggs,  so  perfect  in  color  and  in  form,  without 
a  shout  of  joy  and  a  thrill  of  gladness?  In  their 
city  studios  they  have  no  color  masters  like  a  bed 
of  roses.  Jenny  LInd  could  not  quite  equal  the  cat- 
bird and  the  meadow  lark.  The  bees  In  their  hives 
under  the  lindens  build  to  beat  the  best  architects. 


FINE  ARTS  OF  A  COUNTRY  HOME     243 

We  are  going  to  lay  more  emphasis  hereafter  on 
the  simply  beautiful;  we  shall  have  a  keener  dislike 
for  piles  of  old  brush  and  unused  litter,  as  well  as 
for  that  indescribable  confusion  of  purpose  which  has 
so  generally  characterized  farm  life.  However,  be 
careful  not  to  overdo  this  tendency  and  allow  any- 
where about  your  house  and  grounds  a  suggestion 
of  mere  brains  and  wealth.  It  Is  the  hand  that  we 
need  to  glorify  and  the  country  home  must  never 
fall  to  honor  hand-craft. 

It  was  a  great  day  for  the  country  when  the  Agri- 
cultural College  Land  Grant  passed  through  Con- 
gress. The  Civil  War  was  raging  at  a  horrible  cost 
to  the  land,  but  this  bill  was  nearly  compensatory. 
No  one  knew  it  then,  but  they  can  know  it  now. 
Every  State  is  being  organized  Industrially,  so  that 
education  no  longer  means  the  ability  to  parse  a  Latin 
verb,  but  the  ability  to  understand  and  parse  well 
the  songs  of  the  bees  and  the  trills  of  the  brooks 
and  the  harmonies  that  make  up  garden  and  orchard. 

It  is  a  wonderful  thing  when  our  colleges  step 
in  front  of  our  troubles  and  tell  us  how  to  duplicate 
our  crops,  at  the  same  time  mastering  their  enemies. 
It  is  a  new  day  Indeed  and  a  new  purport  for  educa- 
tion, for  it  makes  of  us  entomologists,  or  in  the 
broader  sense  biologists.  The  use  of  proper  spraying 
materials  compelled  orchard  owners  to  become  prac- 
tical chemists.  The  bungling  work  that  sprays  the 
wrong  stuff  on  guess  work  will  accomplish  nothing, 
but  In  all  cases  the  brain  is  awakened  to  direct  the 


244     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

muscles.  Bulletins  from  Washington  and  from  the 
State  stations  have  become  the  text  books  of  the 
people. 

Grander  yet  is  the  art  of  creating.  This  is  the 
one  achievement  that  is  bringing  us  most  nearly  into 
sonship  with  the  Infinite  Mind  —  the  crossing  of 
old  varieties  or  species  and  making  new  ones  at  will. 
Sex  runs  through  all  Nature.  In  some  plant?  both 
principles  are  united,  but  in  others,  as  frequently  in 
strawberries  and  grapes  and  sometimes  in  apples  and 
pears,  they  are  separated.  Pollen  must  be  carried 
from  one  tree  or  vine  to  another  to  secure  a  perfect 
development  of  fruit,  and  this  process  always  breaks 
up  continuity  of  form  and  quality. 

Here  lies  the  secret  of  Nature,  whereby  new  sorts 
are  constantly  being  developed.  The  grains  of  pol- 
len, carried  from  one  plant  to  another,  result  in  seed 
that  involves  the  qualities  of  both  parents.  This 
sort  of  work  can  be  done  by  art  much  more  carefully 
than  Nature  undertakes  to  do  it.  The  pollen  is 
carefully  removed  from  that  which  shall  be  the 
mother  flower,  and  in  its  stead  is  dusted  pollen  from 
that  which  is  intended  for  the  other  parent.  When 
this  is  undertaken  with  the  skill  of  Mr.  Burbank, 
It  puts  cross-breeding  into  the  class  of  fine  arts.  He 
has  something  in  mind  which  he  wishes  to  create, 
and  although  he  does  not  secure  exactly  that  which  he 
desires  he  is  sure  to  approximate  it. 

As  a  rule,  home  builders  may  let  Nature  do  the 
crossing  while  they  tend  only  to  the  selecting.     Na- 


FINE  ARTS  OF  A  COUNTRY  HOME     245 

ture  will  find  means  sufficient  to  do  her  share  of  the 
work.  She  keeps  the  bees  and  insects  as  well  as 
the  wind  at  work;  and  then  the  birds  and  animals, 
having  eaten  the  fruit,  scatter  the  seed.  Man  comes 
in  to  destroy  the  poorest  and  make  sure  of  the  preser- 
vation of  the  best.  In  the  wild  state  that  is  best  as 
a  rule  which  has  the  toughest  wood,  but  in  the  cul- 
tivated state,  that  is  best  which  gives  the  largest  and 
sweetest  fruit. 

So  you  see  that  if  you  leave  to  Nature  to  finish  up 
this  job,  she  will  multiply  all  the  time  the  most 
prolific  and  hardiest.  No  one  can  guess  how  many 
millions  of  magnificent  products  have  been  crowded 
down  and  out  by  coarser  stock.  When  by  careful 
art  we  have  secured  a  cross  of  high  value  the  problem 
comes  how  to  preserve  it.  There  are  three  ways; 
by  root  division,  by  grafting,  and  by  planting  seed. 
It  happens,  however,  that  there  is  not  a  single  apple 
swinging  on  a  bough  in  the  United  States  that  is  not 
more  or  less  already  cross-fertilized.  It  has  in  it 
the  spirit  or  life  of  many  parents.  If  we  sow  its 
seed  we  will  not  get  the  same  apple.  We  must  rely 
upon  grafting  a  selected  sort  into  inferior  stock. 

By  grafting  near  the  ground  we  can  sometimes  in- 
duce roots  to  start  above  the  insertion  of  the  scion, 
after  which  we  have  the  new  variety  on  Its  own  roots. 
In  this  way  I  have  a  half  dozen  of  the  very  choicest 
plums  that  can  be  multiplied  by  young  shoots  that 
come  up  from  the  ground  instead  of  by  grafting. 
When  working  at  this  magnificent  art,  be  careful  not 


246     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

to  send  out  for  propagation  anything  inferior.  Even 
Mr.  Burbank  has  given  us  worthless  rubbish  as  well 
as  superb   achievements. 

In  my  chapter  on  House  Building  I  did  i>ot  discuss 
concrete,  and  for  this  reason,  that  it  belongs  here 
among  our  new  home  arts,  to  illustrate  the  additions 
which  have  been  recently  made  to  the  interests  of 
country  homes.  I  myself  wish  that  we  could  rein- 
state the  simplicity  of  log  house  days,  with  large 
fireplaces  and  a  general  homefulness  we  do  not  find 
in  the  modern  house.  We  can  do  something  even 
better  than  this  where  our  soil  is  sandy  and  some- 
thing even  more  beautiful.  In  Florida  I  found  that 
I  owned  about  two  hundred  acres  of  good  building 
sand.  Mix  four  of  sand  to  one  of  cement,  and  you 
can  turn  half  of  the  whole  State  into  concrete  blocl^s. 
More  to  the  point  is  it  that  you  and  your  family  can 
make  the  blocks  at  odd  times,  and  store  them  for 
use. 

Two  thousand  blocks,  sixteen  by  eight  by  eight,  will 
build  a  fine  bungalow  of  four  rooms  and  a  kitchen. 
Not  counting  your  own  labor  and  your  family's  la- 
bor, your  house  will  not  cost  you  beyond  five  hun- 
dred dollars.  The  floors  and  roof  of  Southern  pine 
may  also  be  of  your  own  cutting.  My  boys  use  a 
machine  that  cost  less  than  forty  dollars  and  with 
it  turn  out  between  sixty  and  eighty  blocks  a  day. 
All  of  these  are  hollowed  by  a  simple  device  that 
lessens  their  weight  and  adds  strength  while  lowering 
cost.     The  work  is  attractive  to  young  people  and 


FINE  ARTS  OF  A  COUNTRY  HOME     247 

they  should  be  allowed  considerable  freedom  in  the 
way  of  inventing  new  styles  and  new  methods.  This 
will  develop  esthetic  taste  and  call  out  Individual 
powers  of  action. 

A  concrete  farmhouse  insures  coolness  in  summer 
and  warmth  in  winter,  it  needs  no  repairs,  no  wall 
paper  or  mortar,  is  fire-proof,  and  can  be  kept  sanitary 
with  the  least  possible  attention.  There  is  no  better 
material  for  barn  and  stable  floors,  or  for  troughs 
and  tanks.  These  can  be  kept  easily  disinfected, 
while  they  never  wear  out.  Concrete  cisterns  and 
well  curbs  set  well  into  the  ground  keep  out  surface 
water,  decreasing  the  danger  of  infection.  A  con- 
crete barn  can  be  made  to  retain  its  sweetness  and 
cleanliness,  while  thoroughly  ventilated.  Concrete 
steps  and  sidewalks  make  an  attractive  approach  to 
your  buildings  and  are  far  less  perishable  than  brick 
or  common  stone.  I  have  no  doubt  that  this  new 
art  of  house  building,  with  home  material  by  home 
hands,  is  to  be  the  rule  over  a  large  part  of  the  coun- 
try. 

Now  install  a  gasoline  engine,  with  a  dynamo,  and 
you  may  lift  water  to  a  tank  for  irrigation,  while  at 
the  same  time  you  light  your  house  with  generated 
electricity.  You  may  make  it  a  two  story  and  eight 
room  house  at  about  double  the  cost.  You  will  of 
course  include  one  or  more  fireplaces,  and  your  whole 
chimney  as  well  as  the  walls  of  the  house  may  be 
made  of  concrete.  Rat-proof  foundations  and  mouse- 
proof  division  walls  are  Included.     Here  is  a  great 


24^     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

revolution,  or  evolution  rather,  coming  in  the  way 
of  country  home  making. 

I  ought  surely  in  this  chapter  to  recall  the  won- 
derful art  of  inoculating  soil,  so  that  it  will  be  capable 
of  growing  certain  plants  that  otherwise  it  could 
not.  There  are  thousands  of  acres  of  alfalfa  fur- 
nishing three  crops  a  year,  on  soil  that  before  inocu- 
lation would  not  yield  even  one  crop.  What  are 
these  bacteria  ?  It  is  hard  to  tell  even  yet ;  only  they 
are  of  infinite  sorts,  everywhere,  in  the  land  and  air 
and  water.  We  have  under  laboratory  examination 
at  least  a  thousand  kinds,  most  of  which  can  be  put 
to  use,  but  some  of  which  are  most  destructive  ene- 
mies. The  new  farmer  has  got  to  know  a  good  deal 
about  these  minute  organisms  that  our  fathers  never 
even  heard  of,  or  he  will  not  be  able  to  keep  up  with 
his  age. 

Every  country  home  should  be  in  this  way  a  sort 
of  experiment  station,  not  only  for  the  interest  there 
Is  In  it  but  for  the  contribution  made  to  the  public. 
In  horticulture  just  now  we  need  a  lot  of  new  things, 
and  someone  must  either  discover  or  create  them. 
We  need  an  absolutely  hardy  red  raspberry,  equal 
otherwise  to  the  Cuthbert;  also  a  thoroughly  thorn- 
less  blackberry,  equal  otherwise  to  King  Philip  or 
Eldorado.  Among  the  strawberries  it  will  do  no 
harm  for  experimenters  to  see  If  they  can  Improve  a 
little  on  William  Belt.  We  need  nearly  seedless 
apples,  and  pears,  and  oranges,  and  especially  grapes, 

Everywhere  in  orchard  and  garden,  as  well  as  in 


FINE  ARTS  OF  A  COUNTRY  HOME     249 

stables,  we  need  improvement,  and  each  man  can  very 
easily  find  a  field  of  work  for  himself.  He  will  run 
across  problems  everywhere,  if  he  thinks  while  he 
works.  If  you  get  gloomy  or  lonesome,  go  out  and 
converse  with  your  seedlings  —  your  vegetable  chil- 
dren —  and  you  will  refresh  your  spirit  wonderfully. 

I  remember  the  whole  history  of  garden  berries 
in  American  gardens,  from  the  introduction  of  Wil- 
son's Albany  strawberry  and  the  Red  Antwerp  rasp- 
berry. In  my  childhood  there  were  in  our  gardens 
none  of  these  things,  only  quinces  and  gooseberries; 
while  around  the  fences  black  raspberries  were  oc- 
casionally sowed  by  the  birds,  and  in  our  pastures 
and  meadows  were  wild  strawberries  —  five  hun- 
dred to  the  quart.  William  Wood,  in  1629,  said, 
*'  There  be  strawberries  in  abundance  in  New  Eng- 
land, and  one  may  gather  sixteen  quarts  in  half  a 
day."  This  was  about  the  state  of  affairs  until  1850, 
and  then  we  began  to  have  berry  gardens  that  were 
worth  the  while.  The  race  of  huge  berries  began, 
however,  at  least  twenty  years  later  —  the  one-to-a- 
mouthful  or  twenty-to-a-quart  sort. 

We  have  to  learn  how  to  sympathize  with  trees 
and  shrubs,  enter  into  their  will  and  purpose,  exactly 
as  we  do  with  animals.  It  will  never  do  to  think  that 
all  trees  can  be  even  trimmed  alike,  much  less  fed 
alike,  any  more  than  a  stable  full  of  horses,  cows,  and 
sheep.  The  country  home  maker  has  to  study  all 
these  things,  not  in  the  general,  but  in  the  particular. 
Pruning  and  trimming  and  helping  a  tree  must  be- 


250     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

gin  when  it  Is  first  transferred  to  our  soil  and  must 
continue  as  long  as  the  tree  lives. 

I  think  sixty  years  in  these  days  is  considered  a 
satisfactory  period  for  an  orchard,  yet  I  see  no  rea- 
son why  with  proper  care  an  orchard  may  not  live 
around  two  hundred  years,  bearing  fruit  all  the  time. 
Trees  are  forced  in  the  nurseries,  fed  with  commer- 
cial fertilizers  or  rank  manure,  not  sufficiently  pruned 
at  setting,  devitalized  with  suckers,  then  allowed  to 
overbear  when  young  and  when  altogether  out  of 
good  condition  a  professional  trimmer  is  let  loose 
among  them  at  two  dollars  a  day.  Poor  orchard! 
Why  should  it  not  die  an  early  death? 

The  fine  arts  that  will  be  evolved  in  the  garden, 
orchard,  meadow,  and  shop  of  the  future  country 
home  can  only  be  guessed  by  those  who  are  somewhat 
acquainted  with  what  is  now  being  worked  out  by 
our  agricultural  colleges  —  the  most  wonderful  in- 
stitutions of  this  age.  Of  the  half  hundred  now  in 
existence,  not  one  but  is  closing  in  on  problems  the 
solution  of  which  will  render  our  homes  not  only 
richer  in  crops,  but  in  sciences  and  arts. 

Quite  as  notable  as  those  out  of  doors  will  be  the 
arts  of  indoor  life.  Refinement  will  mark  the  com- 
ing home,  not  style  and  show  but  the  spirit  of  order 
and  enlightenment  which  comes  from  the  right  sort 
of  culture.  When  we  have  made  over  the  kitchen, 
with  electric  power  in  the  place  of  stupid  help,  the 
housewife  can  take  her  position  without  lowering 
her  womanhood.     The  true  kitchen  is  really  a  lab- 


FINE  ARTS  OF  A  COUNTRY  HOME     251 

oratory,  and  cooking  Is  as  high  an  art  in  chemistry 
as  the  experimentations  of  a  college  laboratory. 
Really  the  woman's  corner  of  a  daily  newspaper 
records  more  inventions  than  can  be  found  anywhere 
else  in  daily  life.  The  combinations  which  bring 
forth  nourishment  from  weeds  as  well  as  vegetables 
and  fruits,  are  becoming  numberless.  Shall  we  ever 
have  a  cook  book  that  will  include  simply  the  science 
of  the  matter  and  that  teaches  us  how  to  eat  in  order 
to  live  and  be  strong? 

There  is  a  simple  index  of  country  life  to  be  seen 
in  the  way  the  table  is  set.  A  careless  mind  dis- 
covers itself  in  confusion,  in  the  placing  of  food  upon 
the  table  without  order,  but  the  table  of  another 
woman  reveals  the  esthetic  sense  cultivated  —  just 
trifles  to  be  sure,  but  they  spell  out  a  good  deal,  just 
as  the  alphabet  does.  These  little  things  cost  not 
much  in  the  way  of  labor,  but  they  go  into  character. 
The  refined  use  of  flowers  throughout  the  house  will 
do  much  to  make  hfe  cheerful  and  cooperation  more 
easy. 

The  tin  can  deserves  a  whole  article  to  itself. 
Seventy-five  years  ago  it  had  not  been  invented.  In 
those  days  we  had  wonderful  jars  of  pickles  and 
pots  of  preserves,  but  the  art  of  keeping  the  whole 
pear  and  the  uncooked  berries  through  the  entire 
year,  or  even  many  years,  no  one  had  yet  dreamed. 
It  would  give  me  real  pleasure  to  place  here,  in 
capital  letters,  the  name  of  the  first  woman  who  ever 
put  up  a  can  of  strawberries  or  cherries.     It  was  one 


252     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

of  those  rare  inspirations  that  change  the  whole  do- 
mestic and  social  life  of  the  world. 

To-day  the  can  is  as  common  in  South  Africa  as 
in  New  Jersey.  It  lies  in  piles  everywhere,  defying 
the  plow  or  the  shovel  to  cover  it.  It  lies  beside  the 
cabin  of  the  Southern  negro,  emptied  of  corn,  as- 
paragus, green  peas,  peaches,  and  a  dozen  other 
luxuries.  That  marvelous  novelty  the  "  love  apple  " 
of  our  mothers,  now  the  tomato,  sells  by  the  millions 
of  cans  in  China  and  Japan.  All  the  world  has  gone 
a  canning.  Every  little  home  is  finding  its  pride  and 
its  pleasure  in  turning  winter  into  summer.  A 
wealthy  friend,  dressed  in  her  silks  and  jewels,  re- 
cently led  me  through  her  store  room  with  a  pride 
equal  to  that  shown  in  the  ball  room,  as  she  waved 
her  hand  over  the  hundreds  of  cans  and  jars,  say- 
ing, "  I  did  this  with  my  own  hands."  It  is  one 
of  the  finest  arts  yet  invented. 

However,  we  count  most  of  all  in  this  Indoor  liv- 
ing on  the  presence  of  electric  power  to  light  the 
house  and  the  outhouses,  to  bring  water  into  the 
kitchen  and  hot  water  into  the  chambers,  operating 
the  churn,  washing  dishes,  scrubbing  floors,  sweep- 
ing and  cleansing  the  house  of  dust,  in  a  way  that 
our  mothers  could  not  have  foreseen.  Only  the  other 
day  came  news  that  we  could  store  heat  as  well  as 
power,  a  new  and  novel  discovery  already  applied 
in  English  kitchens,  whereby  electric-born  heat  is 
stored  for  use,  while  the  electric  power  is  switched 


,7/'....       ■  .;  ;   ^/A 


FINE  ARTS  OF  A  COUNTRY  HOME     253 

off  for  several  hours  of  work  at  the  churn  or  other 
service. 

We  shall  not  go  backward  to  pick  up  the  charm- 
ing industries  of  elder  days,  but  we  are  surely  going 
forward  to  make  indoor  life  more  beautiful  and  less 
taskful.  This  it  seems  to  me  is  what  the  country 
home  is  going  to  be,  not  a  whit  behind  town  life,  but 
very  far  ahead  of  it  in  its  arts  and  its  sciences  as 
well  as  Its  pleasures  and  its  profits.  It  will  have 
about  all  that  heretofore  has  been  associated  closely 
with  the  crowded  town,  and  will  also  have  its  rural 
charms,  its  freedom  of  simplicity  and  its  association 
with  Nature.  Agriculture  or  land  tillage  in  any 
form  will  not  only  be  the  equal,  but  supreme  among 
the  industries.  It  is  left  now  for  the  Burbanks  and 
the  Munsons  and  the  Budds  and  the  Baileys  to  mar- 
shal mankind  and  lead  the  world. 


CHAPTER  XII 

CAN  WE  MAKE  IT  PAY? 

WE  come  to  this  problem  at  last,  and  if  we 
cannot  solve  it  in  the  affirmative  this 
whole  business  of  making  country  homes 
for  everyone  Is  out  of  the  question.  We  have  in- 
volved more  or  less  of  a  reply  In  several  of  the  pre- 
ceding chapters;  what  we  want  now  is  to  get  at 
the  dollars  and  cents.  Land  costs,  experience  costs, 
trees  and  plants  cost;  one  must  feed  and  clothe  his 
family;  coal  bills  and  meat  bills  and  taxes  count  in 
the  country  as  well  as  in  the  city.  In  addition  to 
our  common  needs,  we  must  keep  a  horse  and  a 
cow  and  some  other  domestic  animals  as  cooperators 
and  their  feed  cannot  be  had  for  nothing.  The 
problem  of  health  is  not  to  be  dodged,  and  wages 
are  double  what  they  were  forty  years  ago. 

Facing  these  difficulties  I  should  not  be  willing  to 
Invite  into  the  country  anyone  who  does  not  stand 
a  fair  chance  of  overcoming  them.  I  am  going  to 
try  to  show  you  that  the  majority  can  do  this  and 
so  we  shall  find  out  that  making  a  country  home  is 
not  only  a  matter  of  sentiment,  but  of  economy. 

A  letter  from  Chicago  says,  "  I  am  willing  to  work 
hard  if  I  can  just  hear  a  brook  all  day  and  I  would 

254 


CAN  WE  MAKE  IT  PAY?  255 

like  to  do  my  sewing  out  under  an  apple  tree.  I 
want  some  fresh  air;  and  then  I  want  some  fresh 
things  out  of  my  own  garden  for  dinner."  Her 
husband  wrote  on  the  back  of  the  sheet,  "  What  I 
want  is  to  own  a  piece  of  land  and  nobody  to  lord  it 
over  me  or  tell  me  what  to  do  with  it.  I  am  will- 
ing to  stand  by  my  own  mistakes  and  do  a  lot  of 
learning."  Here  is  sentiment  enough  for  anybody, 
but  there  is  a  practicality  about  it  and  I  did  not 
hesitate  to  answer,  "  You  will  do  well  almost  any- 
where among  the  trees  and  brooks.  Evidently  what 
you  want  is  what  Nature  offers  first,  that  is  beauty, 
but  you  comprehend  the  fact  that  the  beautiful  and 
the  useful  are  identical." 

Only  those  who  have  answered  three  hundred  let- 
ters of  inquiry  in  a  single  year,  most  of  them  on  ac- 
count of  these  chapters  as  they  appeared  in  magazine 
form,  as  I  have,  can  understand  the  difficulty  of  mak- 
ing adequate  replies  to  the  thousand  and  one  dif- 
ferent temperaments,  with  different  tastes,  involving 
capital  and  health.  I  do  not  believe  I  can  do  a  better 
thing,  before  discussing  the  matter  In  dollars  and 
cents,  than  to  give  you  half  a  dozen  of  these  let- 
ters. 

One  of  them  writes,  "  I  wish  to  grow  apples. 
I  have  money  enough  to  plant  an  orchard  and  run 
It  for  several  years  without  profit.  I  know  that  these 
larger  fruits  will  bring  In  very  little  Inside  eight  or 
ten  years.  But  I  do  not  know  what  varieties  to 
plant,  nor  am  I  quite  sure  what  part  of  the  coun- 


256     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

try  is  most  desirable  in  which  to  settle.  About  trim- 
ming and  grafting  and  budding  and  mulching  I 
know  nothing,  excepting  what  I  got  out  of  your  book 
on  the  Orchard.  Can  you  spend  time  to  give  me 
a  few  hints?  " 

To  this  young  man  I  answered,  "  Go  to  Cornell 
University,  or  some  other  agricultural  college  for  two 
years,  where  you  can  learn  the  latest  information 
about  varieties,  how  to  plant  trees  as  well  as  select 
them,  and  how  to  handle  your  fruit  and  market  it. 
After  you  have  secured  this  training  you  can  buy 
property  safely  either  in  New  England  or  in  New 
York  or  in  Missouri  or  in  Michigan,  while  Colo- 
rado and  the  Pacific  States  are  very  tempting.  This 
year  all  our  apples  are  in  Oregon,  Washington,  and 
California.  This  has  to  do  partly  with  careless 
apple  growing  and  it  has  to  do  with  insects  and 
fungus,  and  how  to  ward  off  the  effects  of  a  warm 
March. 

"  Scientific  apple  growing  should  yield  one  hun- 
dred dollars  to  each  tree,  every  four  years,  but  ig- 
norant apple  growing  will  leave  you  out  of  pocket. 
A  good  apple  tree,  well  cared  for,  should  yield  four 
to  eight  barrels  of  apples  per  year.  Now  what  you 
want  to  find  out  is  the  best  yielders  and  those  that 
bear  annually."  My  readers  can  pick  out  of  this 
letter  and  my  response  a  whole  lot  of  Information 
that  is  not  on  the  surface. 

Another  letter  reads,  "  We  are  two  women,  teach- 
ers, tired  out,  and  we  want  to  get  where  we  shall  be 


CAN  WE  MAKE  IT  PAY?  257 

free  from  continual  nerve  strain  and  get  close  to 
the  dirt.  We  are  willing  to  do  outdoor  work  and 
we  don't  suppose  that  country  living  consists  merely 
in  cultivating  pinks  and  roses.  A  new  sort  of  teach- 
ing is  coming  into  our  schools  and  we  are  not  fit  for 
it.  We  don't  know  anything  about  industrial  train- 
ing and  we  are  willing  to  give  way  to  those  who 
do.  We  believe  in  this  new  sort  of  learning  and 
think  the  boys  and  girls  ought  to  have  it.  We  want 
to  learn  how  to  grow  things.  We  have  about  two 
thousand  dollars  apiece.  That  will  take  care  of  us 
until  we  have  had  some  experience,  will  it  not? 
Now  tell  us  where  you  think  we  should  go?" 
Honest,  we  are  not  over  fifty-five,  either  of  us,  in 
good  health,  homely,  and  not  a  bit  afraid  of  using 
our  hands." 

To  this  letter  I  replied,  "  Very  good.  You  have 
capital  enough  to  buy  twenty  acres  of  land  in  Michi- 
gan, Florida,  or  California;  to  put  up  a  seven  hun- 
dred dollar  house  and  a  two  hundred  dollar  barn, 
with  hotbeds  and  other  attachments.  You  can  plant 
enough  fruit  trees  to  start  with;  then  keep  hens  and 
if  you  are  in  the  right  place  you  can  keep  a  couple 
of  boarders.  Build  your  house  so  that  it  can  be 
enlarged  for  more  occupants,  if  the  future  demands 
it.  I  should  advise  you,  on  the  whole,  to  go  to  a 
warmer  climate  where  you  can  work  all  winter." 

Quite  a  bunch  of  letters  is  illustrated  by  this  one; 
"  I  have  worn  myself  out  with  shop  work.  I  want 
outdoor  life,  and  the  doctor  insists  on  my  having 


258     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

it.  I  am  thirty-eight  years  of  age,  had  some  ex- 
perience in  farm  life  when  a  boy.  Can  I  start  now 
at  gardening  and  make  a  living?  I  have  a  wife  and 
two  children,  but  I  have  only  eleven  hundred  dollars 
to  begin  on." 

"  In  your  case  I  should  say  it  would  be  wise  to 
clerk  it  awhile  longer,  if  thereby  you  can  raise  your 
capital  to  twenty-five  hundred  or  three  thousand  dol- 
lars. I  do  not  know  you  personally,  but  I  have 
strong  disinclination  to  calling  anyone  into  the 
country  who  has  nothing  to  carry  him  over  the  ex- 
perience period  and  the  possible  depressions  from 
ill  health.  But  if  you  cannot  secure  more  capital, 
make  your  trial  somewhat  in  this  way.  Buy  a  small 
property  near  a  city  and  start  in  on  truck  gardening. 
This  will  give  you  something  to  sell  the  first  year. 
Meanwhile  you  can  plant  fruit  trees  for  the  future 
and  you  can  have  a  berry  garden,  which  will  yield 
you  something  the  second  year. 

"  It  will  be  necessary  to  keep  your  own  horse  and 
do  your  own  marketing.  Find  private  customers  as 
soon  as  possible  and  treat  them  with  the  utmost 
honor.  Make  your  name  highly  respectable.  A  few 
hens  will  give  you  chickens  and  eggs  and  a  cow  will 
give  you  milk.  Here  you  are.  You  will  have  to 
economize  in  your  foods  and  you  must  not  waste  a 
dime  on  tobacco."'    . 

Another  letter  pleases  me  better  than  any  that  I 
have  quoted  and  it  comes  from  a  woman.  She 
writes,   "  My  husband  and  I  always  pull   together 


CAN  WE  MAKE  IT  PAY?  259 

and  we  are  going  to  pull  together  in  another  direc- 
tion. We  have  been  reading  your  articles  and  we 
are  going  to  have  a  country  home  —  sure.  We  do 
not  write  to  ask  you  where  we  shall  go,  that  we  have 
decided  for  ourselves.  We  are  going  to  raise  hens 
and  chickens,  partly  because  we  like  to  and  partly 
because  we  think  there  is  a  living  in  it.     We  have 

been  reading 's  book,  but  we  do  not  believe 

one-half  that  he  says.  We  surely  shall  not  go  away 
from  the  city  expecting  to  get  rich  at  once.  We  are 
healthy,  fairly  honest,  and  we  have  a  lot  of  stick- 
to-it-iveness.  What  we  want  of  you  is  to  tell  us 
whether  you  would  combine  with  raising  fowls  rais- 
ing small  fruits.  Don't  you  think  that  we  could  get 
a  good  deal  of  use  out  of  our  hens  by  letting  them 
have  the  run  of  a  small  orchard?  If  this  letter 
bothers  you,  burn  it." 

To  this  letter  I  answered,  "  You  have  hit  it  just 
right.  Plant  a  plum  yard  and  let  it  be  a  chicken  yard 
at  the  same  time.  Give  a  part  of  your  fowls  the  run 
of  an  apple  orchard,  at  least  part  of  the  year.  I 
have  a  neighbor  whose  fifty  chickens  have  had  the 
range  of  my  gardens  and  orchards  all  summer.  They 
have  done  me  vastly  more  good  than  harm.  The 
point  is  to  keep  down  the  bugs  and  the  trypeta  flies 
and  all  the  rest  of  the  vermin.  There  Is  nothing  else 
In  the  world  so  good  as  hens  to  do  this,  not  even  the 
birds.  I  take  it,  however,  you  will  cultivate  birds 
also.  The  amount  of  income  In  such  a  case  as  yours 
is  not  the  point,  nor  ought  I  to  undertake  to  tell 


26o     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

you  how  much  you  will  earn.  Those  extravagant 
stories  that  some  authors  Indulge  In  are  not  the  stuff 
to  make  good  country  homes.  Simply  do  your  level 
best  on  the  track  you  have  selected  and  you  can  surely 
make  it  pay." 

The  best  thing  about  the  last  letter  I  have  quoted 
is  the  cooperative  spirit.  In  the  country  it  is  im- 
possible to  thrive  without  the  woman  can  see  things 
out  of  doors  and  do  them  as  well  as  indoors.  She 
ought  to  be  able  to  have  a  swarm  of  bees,  toss  off  a 
load  of  hay  on  a  pinch,  harness  a  horse,  or  milk  a 
cow,  without  thinking  it  unwomanly.  Foreigners 
who  come  to  this  country  succeed  as  a  rule  in  country 
home  making,  and  it  is  almost  invariably  because  they 
live  simply,  keep  money  in  hand,  and  forego  luxuries, 
while  the  whole  family  works  together  in  the  field 
and  in  the  house. 

A  widow  wrote  me  some  time  since  that  she  was 
possessed  of  two  girls,  twelve  and  fifteen  years  of 
age,  that  she  was  living  on  a  very  small  income, 
fortunately  a  fixed  affair,  but  not  large  enough  to 
enable  her  to  educate  these  girls  to  a  fashionable 
life.  She  was  thinking  of  finding  a  country  home, 
where  their  training  would  be  largely  in  matters  of 
natural  science  and  where  they  could  themselves  earn 
their  own  living  while  they  were  learning.  I  ad- 
vised this  woman  to  find  a  suburban  residence,  pos- 
sibly rent  it  at  first  and  start  in  with  a  garden  of 
flowers    and   strawberries.     Then  branch    Into    the 


CAN  WE  MAKE  IT  PAY?  261 

caring  for  green  house  flowers.  I  would  have  a 
shrubbery  and  it  should  consist  of  lilacs  and  other 
shrubs  that  furnish  a  large  quantity  of  saleable 
flowers.  This  is  a  blunder  about  many  green  houses, 
that  they  do  not  have  shrubberies  or  tulips  and  lilies 
in  large  stock.  Here  again  I  could  have  quoted 
amazing  results,  only  to  mislead  the  letter  writer  and 
make  mischief. 

The  fact  is  that  conditions  and  temperaments 
vary  so  greatly  that  it  is  utterly  impossible  either  in 
a  letter  or  in  a  book  to  give  anything  more  than  a 
general  outline  of  advice.  This  one  thing  holds  good 
all  the  time,  that  you  must  go  out  prepared  to  rough 
it  somewhat  and  be  satisfied  with  a  moderate  in- 
come. 

.  Three  letters  turn  up  here  next,  each  one  of  them 
inquiring  about  the  exploiting  companies  that  are 
sending  out  circulars  bidding  for  these  new  country 
home  makers  with  inducements  that  are  startling. 
What  they  have  to  say  is  sometimes  true,  but  there  is 
this  one  single  reply  to  be  made  in  all  such  cases; 
never  buy  a  rod  of  land  until  you  have  seen  it. 
Then,  after  you  have  become  fairly  well  acquainted 
with  the  land  and  its  surroundings,  stay  long  enough 
to  comprehend  the  climate,  and  then  you  must  know 
your  relations  to  market  and  your  probable  relations 
to  neighbors.  It  will  not  be  a  severe  judgment  to  say 
that  much  the  larger  part  of  this  advertising  is  not 
true.     I  have  seen  some  pitiful  results   from  the 


262     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

credulity  of  poor  people  who  have  let  loose  of  their 
small  capital  for  a  piece  of  property  adjacent  to 
swamps,  if  not  itself  under  water. 

From  the  letters  which  I  have  quoted  I  want  you 
to  gather  one  thing.  Every  one  must  have  some 
capital  when  going  to  the  country,  unless  it  be  when 
settling  in  the  suburbs  of  a  town  where  strawberries 
and  fowls  will  bring  in  a  quick  return.  There  is 
this  other  exception,  where  a  young  man  is  possessed 
of  good  health  and  muscle  and  without  bad  habits 
is  willing  to  commit  himself  to  an  honest  experi- 
ment. Running  in  debt  is  not  advisable,  unless  you 
have  carefully  gone  over  the  conditions  so  as  to  be 
sure  that  there  will  be  a  balance  in  your  favor  each 
year.  And  then  you  must  keep  a  bank  account  as 
soon  as  possible.  Nothing  so  stimulates  industry 
as  having  a  deposit  showing  that  industry  is  profit- 
able. 

Have  your  outgo  and  your  income  down  in  figures. 
I  like  the  idea  of  drawing  up  a  budget.  Every  man 
should  have  a  budget,  that  is,  he  should  look  ahead 
and  determine  as  nearly  as  possible  what  his  outgo 
and  income  are  likely  to  be  during  the  coming  twelve 
months.  Then  he  should  compel  his  expenditures 
to  tally  with  this  forward  looking.  Always  know 
which  way  you  are  facing  —  toward  prosperity  or 
bankruptcy. 

Gardening  as  a  rule  is  the  easiest  hold  for  ordinary 
city  people.  There  are  not  so  many  secrets  about 
growing  beets,  carrots,  potatoes,  and  beans  as  there 


CAN  WE  MAKE  IT  PAY?  263 

are  about  growing  plums  and  apples  and  cherries. 
Any  good  agricultural  paper  will  carry  you  through 
your  experiments  and  lead  you  safely  to  success. 
There  is  of  course  much  more  to  gardening  than  ap- 
pears on  the  surface,  but  you  can  learn  most  of  this 
as  you  move  on.  You  have  to  make  your  soil,  as 
well  as  cultivate  your  plants,  but  this  I  have  told  you 
about  in  another  chapter. 

You  must  not  count  on  large  returns  until  you  have 
planted  considerable  experience  as  well  as  seeds,  but 
with  the  worst  sort  of  blundering  you  can  hardly  fail 
to  get  enough  vegetables  for  home  consumption  the 
first  year  and  the  waste  can  go  to  your  cow  and  horse. 
I  could  easily  repeat  a  lot  of  fine  stories,  showing 
what  somebody  has  done  with  an  onion  bed,  or  with 
a  field  of  beans  or  peas,  only  you  would  probably  be 
misled  by  such  stories. 

What  you  can  do  will  be  something  like  this ;  from 
a  garden  five  rods  square,  get  your  table  corn  In  suc- 
cession from  July  to  September.  You  will  from  the 
same  field  get  plenty  of  green  peas  during  the  same 
period.  For  string  beans  and  shell  beans  you  will 
need  another  strip  about  one  rod  by  four  or  five. 
Potatoes  will  call  for  a  third  strip  six  rods  by  four, 
and  good  mellow  soil  It  must  be  to  give  you  good  re- 
turns. Now  when  you  come  to  planting  for  market, 
multiply  the  strips  according  to  the  amount  of  vege- 
tables you  are  prepared  to  truck  and  sell.  In  the 
Southern  States  we  try  sweet  potatoes  and  cassava 
and  never  expect  to  find  the  market  overstocked. 


264     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

If  you  prefer  to  begin  with  a  berry  garden  and  go 
into  small  fruit  growing,  you  will  need  for  home 
consumption,  for  a  single  family  of  live,  about  one 
hundred  plants  of  strawberries  and  one  hundred  of 
raspberries.  You  have  already  learned  that  straw- 
berries will  bear  the  first  year,  but  that  the  raspber- 
ries will  need  a  year  to  grow  their  canes  which 
never  bear  two  years  in  succession.  Now  once  more 
multiply  your  plot  according  to  the  size  of  the  busi- 
ness you  are  to  conduct.  One  acre  of  red  raspber- 
ries, carefully  tilled  and  marketed,  ought  to  bring 
you  about  fifty  bushels  of  fruit,  and  if  sold  directly 
to  your  customers,  you  will  find  the  ruling  prices  to 
be  at  least  fifteen  cents  a  quart.  It  is  a  capital  berry 
to  handle,  only  one  must  be  up  and  doing  with  it 
early  in  the  morning,  Sundays  not  excepted. 

Nature  has  arranged  this  matter  of  small  fruit 
ripening  very  nicely,  so  that  we  find  one  sort  succeed- 
ing another  in  such  a  way  that  we  can  do  a  great 
deal  of  the  handling  by  home  pickers.  About  the 
first  of  July  we  begin  currant  picking,  confidently 
expecting  to  net  at  least  one  hundred  dollars  from 
each  acre.  Black  raspberries  accompany  the  cur- 
rants and  red  raspberries  follow  immediately  after, 
and  are  themselves  succeeded  by  the  blackberries. 
This  is  just  the  succession  you  desire,  and  from  two 
acres  you  are  probably  picking  to  the  value  of  three 
hundred  dollars  —  with  an  increase  each  year.  These 
gardens  will  improve  for  five  or  ten  years  and  will 


CAN  WE  MAKE  IT  PAY?  265 

be  profitable  even  longer.  Later,  after  your  apples 
are  well  grown,  you  will  get  from  the  same  ground 
another  crop  and  It  should  average  twenty  dollars 
to  every  apple  tree  that  Is  In  perfect  condition. 

Right  after  the  berries  follow  the  cherries  and 
then  the  plums,  with  more  or  less  early  pears  and 
apples,  and  after  that  both  the  apples  and  the  pears 
that  go  Into  winter  storage.  If  you  learn  how  to 
handle  apples  as  they  should  be  handled  and  secure 
private  customers,  you  will  net  these  years  at  least 
four  dollars  per  barrel.  I  am  to-day  selling  my 
extra  select  Spys  for  six  dollars  per  barrel.  In  the 
South  we  start  with  oranges,  but  we  do  not  expect 
much  profit  during  the  first  five  years.  We  look 
to  our  Japanese  persimmons  and  mulberries  and 
loquats  and  plums  for  fruit  about  the  third  year 
from  planting.  The  Southerner,  however,  Is  almost 
sure  to  combine  truck  growing  and  orcharding,  ex- 
cept only  where  celery  or  some  other  hobby  has  se- 
cured the  field.  These  specialties  win  big  prices  for 
awhile  but  soon  glut  the  market. 

You  see  I  am  not  counting  on  any  large  amount 
of  income  during  the  first  year  or  two,  only  we  must 
have  a  full  family  supply  at  once.  The  surplus 
from  strawberry  beds  or  vegetable  beds  must  be 
canned  for  winter  use.  There  Is  no  better  winter 
food  than  what  you  can  grow  yourself  If  you  will 
learn  how  to  put  it  up.  A  little  later  you  may  depend 
upon  It  that  a  small  canning  establishment  will  make 


266     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

a  profitable  department  of  every  home,  just  as  also 
a  small  cider  press  will  turn  waste  into  profit  for  the 
orchard. 

Lima  beans  constitute  one  of  the  most  delicious  and 
nourishing  of  all  foods;  save  your  dried  ones,  as 
well  as  all  the  bush  beans  you  do  not  use  or  sell 
during  the  summer.  In  the  course  of  five  years  you 
can  have  a  storage  of  plums,  pears,  berries,  and 
vegetables.  You  are  not  getting  rich,  are  you? 
Well,  you  are  at  least  on  the  road  to  comfort,  and 
a  good  income  Is  in  sight. 

A  good  deal,  all  this  while,  Is  offered  out  of  hand 
by  Nature.  The  troublesome  dandelion  Is  a  bless- 
ing in  disguise,  it  Is  not  only  of  big  food  value,  but 
if  you  wish  your  hens  to  lay  eggs,  throw  bushels  of 
dandelions  into  their  yard.  Wild  scoke  makes  an- 
other superb  "  greens  "  and  the  hated  purslane  Is  a 
third.  Wild  grapes  make  better  jelly  than  the  vine- 
yard grapes,  and  that  from  wild  gooseberries  can 
hardly  be  surpassed. 

All  this  time  keep  your  compost  piles  building, 
and  once  or  twice  a  year  distribute  and  plow  them 
under.  You  are  not  a  good  country  home  maker  un- 
less your  soil  grows  richer  constantly,  and  this  is  just 
what  Americans  must  learn,  that  every  acre  may 
double  its  produce  until  the  whole  land  Is  a  garden. 
Do  not  throw  away  the  suckers  from  your  rasp- 
berries, but  constantly  enlarge  your  gardens  by  plant- 
ing them.  You  can  have  the  beautiful  everywhere 
as  well  as  the  useful,  and  this  you  secure  while  you 


CAN  WE  MAKE  IT  PAY?  267 

arrange  your  planting  so  as  to  keep  up  a  succession 
of  fruit  ripening  through  the  whole  year.  You  could 
not  handle  a  crop  of  five  hundred  bushels  of  straw- 
berries without  a  good  deal  of  hired  help,  but  one 
hundred  bushels  of  currants,  succeeded  by  one  hun- 
dred bushels  of  berries,  and  these  by  plums  and  other 
fruits,  while  they  keep  you  busy,  do  not  involve  you 
in  very  heavy  expenses. 

I  have,  however,  a  good  deal  of  sympathy  with 
those  who  prefer  to  start  their  country  experience 
with  poultry  raising.  The  price  of  eggs  is  not  likely 
to  fall  below  thirty  cents  in  the  winter  and  twenty 
in  the  summer.  The  market  Is  always  sure,  and  it 
does  not  vary  greatly  In  different  parts  of  the 
country.  Only  you  must  have  a  cheap  home  food, 
or  the  hens  will  not  only  take  your  table  waste  and 
steal  your  small  fruits,  but  they  will  run  up  a  mill 
bill,  destroying  everything  and  yet  not  satisfied,  nor 
laying  enough  to  make  It  pay.  At  any  rate  let 
this  matter  be  well  thought  out  and  a  good  propor- 
tion established  between  cost  of  keeping  and  income 
from  eggs  and  broilers. 

Be  sure  also  to  have  good  poultry  fences  between 
yourself  and  your  neighbors.  A  little  management 
will  give  a  good  wide  range  for  your  hens,  where 
they  will  keep  lawns  and  vegetable  gardens  cleared 
of  crickets  and  grasshoppers,  curcullos  and  other 
noxious  bugs,  while  excluded  from  the  gooseberries 
and  the  strawberries.  It  is  a  much  easier  problem 
in  the  South,  where  biddy  can  range  the  fields  twelve 


268     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

months  of  the  year.  You  have  only  to  add  cassava 
and  sweet  potatoes,  which  you  can  grow  In  unlimited 
supplies.  Always  pet  your  biddies;  tallc  with  them 
as  if  they  understood  you,  allow  no  one  to  scare 
them,  and  they  will  soon  be  much  more  manage- 
able. Kill  the  crazy  ones  that  fly  and  yell  if  you  go 
near  them.  The  tame  ones  are  the  best  layers  and 
you  will  be  taking  your  basket  of  eggs  to  market 
twice  a  week  from  twenty  hens  and  bringing  home 
instead  what  groceries  you  need.  I  should  like  to 
make  some  figures  here  concerning  broilers  and  eggs, 
but  aU  of  these  estimates  are  dangerous.  I  simply 
think  that  with  common  sense  and  study  of  condi- 
tions, raising  fowls  Is  a  capital  way  of  beginning 
home  life  In  the  country. 

Now  consider  the  bees,  with  honey  from  sixteen 
to  twenty  cents  a  pound,  and  twelve  to  fifteen  hives, 
on  a  place  of  ten  or  fifteen  acres.  From  these  hives 
with  ordinary  care,  provided  you  have  basswoods 
and  wild  cherries  blossoming  near  by  as  well  as  a 
few  acres  of  berries  and  fruit  trees,  you  will  take 
up  from  six  hundred  to  a  thousand  pounds  of  honey 
annually.  You  may  figure  out  the  Income  according 
to  the  market  that  you  have,  but  my  estimate  would 
be,  after  deducting  one  hundred  pounds  for  home 
use,  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  dollars  clear  in- 
come for  the  balance. 

This  does  not  count  In  the  Incalculable  benefit  de- 
rived from  the  bees  in  pollcnizing  your  fruit.  Place 
no  credit  In  the  rumors  that  they  damage  your  fruit 


CAN  WE  MAKE  IT  PAY?  269 

by  puncturing;  they  eat  only  where  orioles  or  hornets 
Tiave  done  the  mischief.  Bees  and  chickens  fall 
easily  to  the  women's  side  of  the  work.  In  Florida 
I  have  a  neighbor  who  has  over  one  hundred  hens  and 
they  are  all  named.  Her  forty  turkeys  obey  her 
orders  like  trained  soldiers.  Her  bees,  however,  are 
over  my  side  of  the  fence.  With  fowls  and  bees  and 
mushrooms  and  flower  gardens  and  a  vegetable 
garden,  a  woman  can  make  a  fair  living,  all  alone. 
As  a  rule  she  finds  less  trouble  with  help  than  a 
man. 

You  will  observe  that  I  am  dodging  around  this 
question  of  help  constantly.  It  has  become  a  ter- 
rible problem  in  the  country,  provided  we  are  not 
able  to  furnish  a  good  deal  of  home  work  and  do  a 
good  deal  ourselves.  Still  I  know  some  of  the  best 
vegetable  gardeners  who  plant  for  succession,  as  I 
have  suggested  in  the  orchard,  and  get  on  with  very 
little  outside  assistance.  In  Texas  the  women  are 
running  dairies,  while  others  are  goose  farmers,  and 
in  the  fruit  sections  not  a  few  have  canneries  and 
make  money  at  it.  I  know  at  least  one  who  bakes 
for  a  half  dozen  neighbors  and,  with  the  addition 
of  a  small  cannery  to  use  up  wasting  fruit,  furnishes 
her  own  food  and  something  of  a  surplus. 

Just  here  let  us  consider.  You  can,  If  you  prefer, 
•with  the  garden  and  table  waste  feed  one  pig,  or  a 
calf,  or  a  dozen  hens,  but  not  all  of  them.  A  cow 
will  require  house  slops  once  a  day  and  that  will 
take  about  all  the  daily  table  waste.     She  will  need 


270     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

steady  attention,  regular  milking,  and  her  individual 
whims  must  be  understood.  Or  you  can  feed  a  pig 
or  a  calf  much  of  this  stuff,  only  you  can  never  al- 
low them  to  be  stunted,  for  after  that  all  the  feed 
in  the  world  will  not  make  one  of  them  worth  a 
tuppence.  A  college  professor  had  two  Jersey  cows 
and  a  single  pig,  and  that  pig,  getting  all  the  surplus 
milk,  soon  became  a  notable  hog.  The  highly 
pleased  professor  next  year  kept  six  pigs,  but  in  the 
fall  these  were  still  pigs  and  utterly  worthless.  What 
you  want  is  to  turn  your  waste  into  food  and  make 
money  out  of  what  some  people  throw  away. 

We  must  not  only  use  up  waste,  but  we  must 
learn  to  reduce  outgo  to  a  minimum.  I  know 
country  families  that  buy  coal  for  the  whole  year 
round  and  this  adds  to  their  expense  from  fifty  to 
one  hundred  dollars.  I  have  been  able  from  my 
ten  acres  to  supply  my  kitchen  stove  with  fuel  for 
six  months  in  the  year,  during  the  last  thirty  years. 
It  is  curious  how  much  fuel  is  constantly  being  pro- 
vided in  the  trimmings  necessary  to  keep  first  class 
gardens  and  orchards  in  healthy  order.  You  can 
raise  your  own  meat,  or  its  equivalent,  as  I  have 
shown  and  your  own  vegetables. 

Do  not  begin  your  country  experience  by  exploit- 
ing and  displaying.  Do  not  plant  a  big  orange 
grove  in  the  South,  or  go  too  heavily  Into  strawber- 
ries or  apples  In  the  North.  Feel  your  way.  The 
waste  apples  in  your  orchard  should  be  turned  to 
vinegar  and  cider  and  here  comes  In  another  hun- 


CAN  WE  MAKE  IT  PAY?  271 

dred  dollars  from  ten  acres.  As  one  travels  about 
the  country  he  will  be  surprised  at  the  amount  of 
money  invested  in  tools  that  are  left  to  the  friction 
of  storms  and  the  wear  of  the  weather.  From  in- 
sects alone  we  are  losing  one-fifth  of  the  products 
of  the  United  States,  while  poor  storage  reduces  our 
properties  another  fifth. 

Every  country  school  house  should  teach  econom- 
ics. There  is  nothing  in  country  life  that  cannot 
be  overcome  by  application  of  thought  and  labor  and 
it  is  this  overcoming  that  makes  life  worth  the  while. 
A  recent  bulletin  from  an  agricultural  college  reports, 
from  accurate  tests,  that  over  one-third  the  cows 
that  are  kept  for  dairy  purposes  do  not  pay  for  their 
feed  and  care.  Recent  discussion  of  high  prices  has 
also  brought  out  the  fact  that  the  bulk  of  country 
homes  do  not  produce  their  own  food.  "  Not  a  few 
farmers  buy  every  vegetable  that  they  eat,  potatoes 
excepted,  and  all  their  fruit  as  well  as  most  of  their 
meat."  They  have  a  few  hens  straggling  about,  doing 
more  mischief  than  they  do  good.  Yet  it  is  just  as 
possible  as  ever  to  save  in  these  lines.  Potatoes, 
beans,  and  peas  are  as  nutritious  as  meat  and  should 
be  supplied  abundantly  by  every  garden.  The 
French  farmer  not  only  raises  his  own  vegetables  and 
nearly  all  his  food,  but  makes  his  own  fertilizers. 
We  waste  our  soil-making  stuff  and  buy  fertilizers 
not  half  as  good. 

A  country  home  with  an  orchard  of  ungrafted 
fruit,  or  trees  gone  all  to  suckers  and  brush,  does  not 


272     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

pay.  It  will  pay  to  dig  out  your  old-fashioned  cur- 
rants and  grow  the  Red  Giant  and  the  White  Grape. 
It  will  double  the  crop  at  least  and  more  than  double 
the  market  returns.  My  neighbor  has  large  or- 
chards, two  of  them,  but  neither  of  them  pays,  for 
the  plums  are  covered  with  knot  and  the  pears  are 
blighted,  while  the  apple  trees  have  not  been  trimmed 
for  thirty  years.  Nothing  pays  in  the  country  but 
the  best,  and  this  grown  with  intelligence.  Indoor 
waste  is  fully  as  disastrous  as  outdoor  waste.  Cer- 
tainly an  immense  amount  of  food  is  tossed  into  the 
waste  heap  or  fed  to  worthless  animals,  and  more 
is  lost  from  bad  storage,  as  well  as  careless  cooking ; 
every  bit  of  this  tells  on  the  problem  whether  a 
country  home  pays. 

Now  let  us  sum  up  this  matter  of  a  complete 
country  home,  as  I  have  outlined  It  and  see  what  it 
all  comes  to.  I  will  let  the  truck  farmer  speak  for 
himself.  "  We  rented  a  farm  of  fifteen  acres,  one- 
half  of  It  under  cultivation.  We  paid  sixty  dollars 
for  a  horse  and  thirty  for  a  cow,  buying  also  a  wagon, 
with  necessary  tools.  This  left  us  with  a  very  small 
balance  in  pocket.  The  first  year,  our  trucking  gave 
us  a  balance  of  nine  dollars.  The  next  year  we 
added  fifty  acres  more  and  trucked  the  whole  of  It. 
We  added  to  our  stock  by  borrowing  one  hundred 
and  fifty  dollars;  and  at  the  end  of  this  season  we 
had  twenty-five  chickens,  with  a  litter  of  pigs,  but 
buying  left  us  in  debt  one  hundred  dollars. 

"  The  next  year  we  sold  two  hundred  and  sixty- 


CAN  WE  MAKE  IT  PAY?  273 

five  dollars  worth  of  pigs,  three  cows,  and  four  calves. 
We  had  at  the  end  of  the  year  no  cash  in  pocket,  but 
a  full  kit  of  tools  and  a  splendid  team  of  horses  — 
altogether  worth  three  hundred  dollars.  The  next 
year  brought  us  a  good  cash  balance  of  three  hun- 
dred and  forty  dollars  and  we  have  been  doing  better 
and  better  ever  since." 

The  fruit  grower  has  created  a  flower  garden,  a 
fruit  garden,  a  vegetable  garden,  an  apple  and  pear 
orchard,  bee  yard,  hen  yard,  and  cow  yard;  that  is 
when  his  place  is  completed.  If  I  am  not  mistaken, 
and  I  speak  from  experience  as  well  as  observation, 
he  will  from  a  five  acre  farm  of  fruit  run  on  the  in- 
tensive principle  —  that  is  with  diversified  crops, — 
each  one  carefully  worked  on  scientific  principles  — 
at  the  end  of  the  second  year  be  about  even;  at  the 
end  of  five  years  from  strawberries  and  cherries  he 
will  take  one  hundred  dollars,  from  currants  one 
hundred  to  two  hundred  dollars,  from  raspberries  two 
hundred  dollars,  from  plums  one  hundred  and  fifty 
dollars,  from  honey  seventy-five  dollars,  from  pears 
seventy-five  to  one  hundred  dollars,  and  from  apples 
probably  not  more  than  one  hundred  dollars  more. 
He  will  also  have  his  family  cow  and  a  good  work 
horse,  while  his  milk  pans  are  full  as  well  as  his 
"  butter  crock  " —  good,  sweet  butter  with  no  barn 
flavors  —  and  there  is  an  abundance  of  thick  cream 
for  his  berries  and  for  cereals.  If  he  is  near  town 
he  will  also  be  selling  a  surplus  of  both  milk  and 
butter. 


274     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

The  other  side  of  the  problem  runs  about  this 
way:  you  will  probably  need  for  help  during  the 
currant  and  berry  season  to  the  extent  of  one  hun- 
dred dollars.  For  your  horse  and  cow  you  will  grow 
your  own  fodder,  but  will  have  to  buy  mill  stuff  for 
the  horse  at  a  cost  of  about  fifty  dollars  per  year. 
One  dollar  per  week  is  quite  enough  for  this  expense, 
If  your  horse  has  plenty  of  alfalfa  hay.  The  cow 
with  slops  and  June  cut  hay  will  require  no  mill  feed 
whatever.  A  good  family  cow  is  often  an  item  of 
enormous  expense,  quite  balancing  all  that  she  gives 
back  to  the  family,  but  this  is  entirely  unnecessary. 

We  have  to  add  from  fifty  to  one  hundred  dollars 
per  year  for  fuel ;  one  hundred  dollars  per  year  for 
groceries,  including  sugar  and  flour;  a  clothing  bill, 
according  to  the  size  and  habits  of  the  family.  A 
doctor's  bill  is  rarely  essential,  where  good  diet  and 
common  sense  dominate.  Items  of  food  can  be  con- 
siderably reduced  by  buying  at  wholesale.  You 
ought  to  add  at  least  one  hundred  dollars  more  for 
books  and  excursions.  Add  two  hundred  dollars  for 
sundries. 

In  my  judgment  and  with  knowledge  of  what  I 
am  asserting,  a  moderate  sized  family,  with  moderate 
tastes  and  industry,  can  live  well  with  an  outgo  of 
from  five  hundred  to  seven  hundred  dollars  per  year. 
If  now  we  add  five  years  more  to  our  experiment, 
we  shall  probably  not  be  able  to  add  largely  to  the 
income  from  small  fruits,  but  we  shall  be  able  to  a 
good  deal  more  than  double  the  Income  from  large 


CAN  WE  MAKE  IT  PAY?  275 

fruits.  The  apple  trees  that  will  return  one  hun- 
dred dollars  at  the  end  of  five  years  will  return  five 
hundred  dollars  at  the  end  of  ten  years  and  eight  or 
nine  hundred  dollars  at  the  end  of  fifteen  years.  It 
all  depends  upon  your  being  able  to  get  along  with 
a  small  income  during  the  first  two,  three,  or  four 
years  of  your  country  life. 

I  have  seen  very  much  better  chances  than  I  have 
outlined,  where  an  old  place  comes  into  the  market, 
somewhat  out  of  repair  perhaps,  but  with  a  good 
deal  of  fruit  already  obtainable.  The  care  of  such 
a  place  requires  patience  and  scientific  principles  of 
pruning  as  well  as  feeding  the  trees.  In  Florida  I 
have  noted  a  large  number  of  bearing  orange  and 
grapefruit  groves  sold  at  a  nominal  figure,  but  re- 
turning a  very  handsome  sum  the  very  first  year.  I 
can  find  places  in  New  England  where  the  income 
would  be  just  as  liberal  from  apples  and  pears.  A 
peach  orchard  often  drops  into  the  market,  in  Dela- 
ware or  Maryland,  and  an  apple  orchard  in  Mis- 
souri or  Oregon  that  is  as  good  as  clear  profit. 

Growing  for  market  in  these  days  is  quite  a  dif- 
ferent problem  from  what  it  was  before  the  railroads 
undertook  to  carry  our  produce  a  thousand  miles  to 
sell  it.  It  compels  our  trusting  middlemen  with  our 
crops.  Where,  the  market  is  five  thousand  miles  away 
or  five  hundred  even,  the  ordinary  grower  loses 
entire  control  of  his  fruit  or  grain  as  soon  as  he  puts 
it  on  board  the  cars.  If  he  gets  an  inadequate  re- 
turn it  is  very  difficult  to  sift  the  case  and  secure 


276     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

justice.  It  Is  for  this  reason  that  I  have  strongly 
recommended  that  you  do  not  plant  yourself  very 
far  from  a  town  large  enough  to  absorb  your  surplus. 
I  am  aware  that  this  cannot  always  be  done;  but  in 
every  case  you  can  adopt  the  principle  that  I  have 
urged,  to  grow  first  for  home  use  and  second  for 
market. 

Make  sure  that  your  gardens  are  up  to  date,  giv- 
ing you  the  very  best  products  of  modern  discovery 
and  creation,  and  cutting  off  your  expenses  in  every 
direction.  Expand  slowly.  Leave  off  frills.  The 
glory  of  the  country  is  not  the  same  as  the  glory  of 
the  city,  either  as  concerns  a  costly  house  and  pre- 
tentious grounds,  or  in  the  way  of  costly  habits  of 
eating  and  clothing.  The  glory  of  the  country  is 
simplicity  and  naturalness,  under  training.  We  need 
not  go  to  the  extreme  of  Thoreau,  of  living  in  a  self- 
constructed  hut  in  the  wilderness,  but  we  should  leave 
out  everything  that  savors  of  city  streets  —  formality 
and  artificiality.  Fit  yourself  Into  companionship 
with  the  trees  and  keep  your  brains  busy  controlling, 
but  not  defying,  growth. 

Extensive  farming  does  not  come  at  all  within  the 
reach  of  these  chapters.  I  am  considering  only  a 
small  country  home,  thoroughly  cultivated.  Nor 
am  I  writing  for  those  men  of  wealth  who  exploit 
the  country  by  buying  up  large  tracts  of  farm  land, 
Including  farm  houses,  and  then  turning  them  Into 
chateaus.  We  have  quite  too  much  of  this  work 
going  on  and  while  it  creates  false  ideals  of  homes 


CAN  WE  MAKE  IT  PAY?  277 

and  home  life,  it  is  withdrawing  from  production 
some  of  our  richest  acres.  This  is  exactly  what  we 
cannot  afford  to  have  done.  We  need,  on  the  con- 
trary, that  every  acre  shall  be  brought  to  its  maxi- 
mum power  to  feed  our  increasing  population. 

I  am  writing  and  this  chapter  is  specially  intended 
for  those  people  who  are  waking  up  to  the  fact  that 
the  best  life  for  the  majority  of  people  is  country  life, 
for  those  who  have  battered  themselves  against  the 
problem  of  earning  a  living  at  city  employment  and 
done  nothing  else  than  merely  to  secure  daily  bread. 
Young  men  I  specially  advise  to  turn  to  agriculture 
as  the  most  hopeful  of  the  industries.  Our  city  boys 
should  find  places  with  skilled  farmers,  if  possible, 
where  they  can  secure  a  training  supplementary  to 
anything  given  by  the  schools.  To  a  college  grad- 
uate I  would  say,  add  now  a  few  years  at  an  agri- 
cultural college. 

To  everyone  I  would  say  this  business  of  going 
into  the  country  Is  not  a  matter  of  play  or  of  senti- 
ment; bring  with  you  every  bit  of  information  and 
training  that  you  can  secure.  Come  out  from  con- 
gested life  with  the  understanding  that  you  cannot 
change  your  lot  by  merely  getting  away  from  houses 
and  paved  streets,  that  country  life  to  be  a  success 
requires  knowledge.  Industry,  thrlftlness,  economy, 
and  all  the  better  qualities  that  make  up  the  best 
human  character.  This  is  the  better  part  of  the 
whole  story,  that  country  life  makes  men,  if  it  has 
good  stuff  to  work  on. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

THE  SOCIAL  SIDE  OF  COUNTRY  LIFE 

COUNTRY  people  used  to  get  very  close  to- 
gether when  they  lived  a  mile  apart  and  the 
woods  came  up  everywhere  within  sight 
from  the  road.  The  forest  held  two-thirds  of  the 
land  in  those  days  and  we  built  our  houses  along  the 
edges.  We  fought  wild  animals  in  company  and 
we  joined  forces  for  planting  and  harvesting;  husk- 
ing corn  together  was  not  only  a  matter  of  economics 
but  of  social  pleasure.  In  those  days  nearly  all 
traffic  was  the  swapping  of  home-made  goods,  home- 
made food  and  home-made  clothing;  eggs  went  to 
the  store  for  sugar  and  in  one  way  and  another  we 
managed  to  make  every  little  community  complete  in 
itself. 

We  were  pioneering  across  the  continent,  appar- 
ently with  no  other  than  individual  intent,  but  some- 
how groups  came  about  and  each  one  had  Its  dis- 
trict school  by  the  roadside,  its  store  on  one  of  the 
corners,  and  its  log  church,  with  a  grist  mill  every 
fifty  miles.  Each  family  brought  something  out  of 
its  Connecticut  or  Massachusetts  home  that  it  divided 
with  its  neighbors.  One  had  a  few  currant  bushes, 
another  some  apple  seeds,  while  a  third  had  grass 

278 


SOCIAL  SIDE  OF  COUNTRY  LIFE     279 

pinks  and  hollyhocks.  There  was  at  least  one  horse 
and  one  yoke  of  oxen  to  begin  with,  and  they  all 
worked  together  for  common  welfare. 

This  was  what  the  Pilgrims  had  done,  and  they 
had  not  hesitated  to  call  their  homes  a  Common- 
wealth. The  fields  were  largely  tilled  by  mutual  aid; 
tools  were  used  in  common,  and  crops  largely  held 
in  common.  Have  you  ever  considered  the  mean- 
ing of  the  word  neighborhood?  These  were  all 
neighborhoods,  closely  bound  by  common  needs  and 
cooperation,  building  each  other's  houses,  and  doing 
all  sorts  of  things  without  hire.  It  was  a  meaner 
life  that,  by  and  by,  changed  all  this  good  will  into 
hard  cash  in  the  place  of  kindliness.  Mothers 
could  call  on  neighbors'  daughters  for  a  week's  serv- 
ice, at  any  pinch,  no  one  felt  above  doing  house  work, 
and  no  boy  was  above  field  work. 

On  Sunday  the  people  gathered  in  one  union, 
church  on  the  "  commons,"  and  the  good  of  the 
service  was  quite  as  largely  social  as  it  was  religious. 
The  people  swapped  news  as  freely  as  they  listened 
to  long  prayers,  while  friendly  gossip  about  neigh- 
borhood matters  was  very  justly  considered  of  as 
much  importance  as  information  about  the  golden 
paved  city  of  a  future  life.  The  day  of  sects  and 
divided  worship  had  not  come  in;  all  people  were 
truly  brothers  and  sisters,  and  neighbors  they  were 
in  the  sense  of  the  parables  of  Jesus. 

Individuality  worked  itself  out  by  one  making 
brooms,    another   shoes,    and   another   weaving  the 


28o     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

homespun  rolls  of  the  neighborhood.  Yet  all  tilled 
the  soil,  raised  their  own  vegetables  and  meat,  and 
in  every  house  candles  were  dipped,  soap  was  boiled, 
carpets  were  sewed,  quilts  quilted,  and  the  wool  of 
the  farmyard  was  spun  into  yarn  —  which  went  into 
homemade  stockings  or  otherwise  contributed  to  the 
clothing  of  both  sexes. 

It  was  a  cozy  life  that  worried  very  little  about 
transportation  and  none  at  all  about  railroad  rates  or 
coal  bills.  The  parson  glorified  God  and  served  the 
community  for  what  he  could  get,  and  there  was  not 
a  millionaire  in  the  world.  In  this  way  the  United 
States  was  being  made  out  of  commonwealths,  with 
a  widening  commonweal.  The  larger  cities  did  not 
number  one  hundred  thousand  inhabitants,  and  the 
villages  were  merely  nuclei  of  the  farms. 

The  revolution  that  began  about  1850  affected 
our  social  relations  quite  as  much  as  our  physical 
conditions.  The  sickle  had  already  disappeared  and 
now  the  scythe  was  destined  to  follow.  Instead  of 
a  line  of  farmers  racing  across  the  meadows,  full  of 
the  glee  of  rivalry,  McCormick  reapers  marched 
through  the  grass  or  the  grain,  with  one  man  to 
drive  the  team  of  horses.  Indoors  the  humming  of 
the  spinning-wheel  had  already  been  hushed  and  now 
the  quilting  bee  and  the  knitting  matches  made  way 
for  machinery.  The  sewing  machine  abolished  sewing 
societies.  The  multiplication  of  newspapers  and  the 
rise  of  the  modern  magazine  were  at  the  cost  of  the 
gossiping  crowds  that  had  been  accustomed  to  gather 


SOCIAL  SIDE  OF  COUNTRY  LIFE     281 

news  at  the  village  tavern  or  the  corner  grocery 
and  distribute  it  freely  among  the  homes.  More 
was  heard  of  city  life  and  a  longing  was  awakened 
for  participation  in  civic  advantages. 

Churches  naturally  suffered,  for  the  country  folk 
preferred  to  lie  on  their  backs  with  newspaper  or 
magazine,  or  to  read  the  Bible  or  Uncle  Tom,  in- 
stead of  walking  two  or  three  miles  to  a  preaching 
service.  Not  so  many  cared  to  hear  the  opinion  of 
the  parson,  especially  as  much  of  the  literature  that 
was  now  floating  into  their  homes  contradicted  It. 
The  flux  of  the  people  grew  strong  toward  town  life, 
where  social  craving  could  be  more  easily  satisfied. 
Before  the  end  of  the  century  Sunday  lost  Its 
supreme  control  over  the  scattered  country  folk. 
Country  life  was  losing  Its  zest  and  Its  unity. 

The  farmer  who  formerly  swapped  his  veal,  his 
vegetables,  and  his  honey  had  begun  to  ship  his  cot- 
ton and  his  apples  Into  regions  that  he  himself  could 
never  visit.  He  must  learn  to  trust  a  race  of  middle- 
men who  linked  him  to  the  remote  markets.  He  had 
to  think  of  Canton  and  Singapore  as  something  more 
than  missionary  stations.  Everywhere  cooperation 
became  more  difficult,  while  good  will  and  sympathy 
became  more  necessary.  It  Is  very  strange  If,  when 
shaking  hands  with  customers  half  way  round  the 
globe,  we  shall  not  after  awhile  learn  a  closer  friend- 
ship and  cooperation  with  our  neighbors.  This  was 
what  was  bound  to  come  about. 

Under  the  impulse  of  this  new  social  demand  there 


282     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

grew  up  the  Grange,  spreading  over  every  State  and 
multiplying  its  groups  of  associates.  Those  who  had 
heretofore  discussed  cattle  and  soil  and  tools  and 
crops  began  to  reach  out  after  world  problems.  It 
was  a  blind  progress  that  was  made,  but  the  progress 
was  inevitable  and  sure. 

About  1890  the  agricultural  colleges  had  begun  to 
bring  country  work  Into  alliance  with  science.  All 
the  accumulating  knowledge  of  the  world  was  about 
to  be  laid  down  at  the  door  of  the  farmer.  With 
the  experiment  stations  bulletins  were  Issued  freely 
to  be  distributed,  bringing  to  the  front  those 
economic  questions  which  can  only  be  settled  by 
cooperation.  New  fruits  and  new  flowers  began  to 
enrich  rural  life,  and  men  like  Burbank  stood  In  the 
place  of  those  heroes  who  had  previously  occupied 
public  attention.  Farm  produce  not  only  reached 
the  seaboard  cities,  but  began  to  get  through  the 
tariff  cordon  and  reach  the  markets  of  the  world. 
President  McKInley  Invented  the  phrase  "  open 
door,"  which  meant  free  access  for  Kansas  corn  and 
Minnesota  wheat  into  the  ports  of  Korea  and  South 
Africa.  District  schools  began  to  drop  into  town 
schools  and  it  was  clear  that  we  were  in  an  off-clear- 
ing that  looked  to  still  more  revolutionary  changes. 

When  President  Butterfield  of  the  Massachusetts 
Agricultural  College  held  a  conference  on  rural  af- 
fairs In  1908,  he  Invited  not  only  neighboring  col- 
leges but  church  associations,  art  associations,  and 
all  sorts  of  labor  leagues.     He  argued  that  the  time 


SOCIAL  SIDE  OF  COUNTRY  LIFE     283 

had  come  when  the  country  people  must  get  together, 
pooling  their  interests  and  doing  their  thinking  and 
their  working  in  common.  We  must  all  get,  he  said, 
our  culture  from  the  corn  lot.  There  are  languages 
more  ancient  than  those  taught  in  our  colleges,  the 
languages  that  are  spoken  and  sung  and  whistled  in 
our  fields  and  woods.  So  it  was  that  In  one  way 
and  another  country  life  was  renewing  Its  fellowship, 
and  coming  into  a  new  sort  of  associated  complete- 
ness. 

President  Roosevelt  appointed  a  Commission  on 
Rural  Improvement.  The  time  has  come,  he  argued, 
to  abolish  Isolation  and  create  again  an  effective  com- 
munity life.  He  outlined  what  he  proposed  as  Im- 
provement of  country  schools,  completing  the 
tendency  toward  unification  that  would  give  to 
country  children  as  good  advantages  as  If  they  lived 
In  town.  He  would  see  country  roads  made  as  serv- 
iceable as  macadamized  driveways.  He  hoped  to 
see  the  country  church  re-established  as  a  vivifying 
force. 

More  libraries  and  farmers'  institutes  with  wiser 
lecturers  might  well  be  hoped  for.  Cooperative  buy- 
ing and  marketing  among  farmers  he  especially  de- 
sired, which  should  free  them  from  the  impositions 
of  middlemen  and  transportation  interests.  Mutual 
insurance  companies,  community  dairying,  and  other 
industrial  enterprises  in  common  met  his  approval. 
A  parcels  post  and  a  postal  savings  bank  seemed  es- 
sential elements  to  the  new  country  life. 


284     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

The  commission  reported,  and  the  report  should 
be  studied  in  our  common  schools  and  read  In  all 
our  families,  that  the  improvement  of  farm  life 
should  be  pressed  forward  from  both  the  sanitary 
side  and  the  esthetic  side,  making  farm  homes  at- 
tractive as  well  as  economical.  They  would  have 
the  telephone  In  every  house,  binding  together  the 
community,  without  depending  upon  occasional  trips 
to  the  tavern,  while  rural  free  mail  delivery  gave  a 
daily  zest  to  the  Isolated  home.  The  commission 
held  that  the  city  had  had  its  full  share  of  attention, 
and  that  now  the  country  fairly  requires  the  Interest 
of  government.  The  concentering  social  forces 
should  become  distributive.  The  appointment  of 
this  commission,  which  seemed  to  the  Independent 
farmer  impertinent,  was  welcomed  finally  as  giving 
strong  propulsion  to  a  new  suburbanism  and  a 
broader  country  life. 

Almost  immediately  a  new  phase  and  a  most  im- 
portant one  for  country  life  came  about  in  an  alliance 
of  trade  and  transit  with  the  farmer.  J.  J.  Hill, 
the  genius  of  industrialism,  president  of  the  Great 
Northern,  first  announced  the  doctrine  that  railroads 
and  farms  were  not  In  opposition,  but  the  closest  al- 
lies. President  Brown  of  the  New  York  Central 
suggested  a  syndicate,  with  sufficient  capital  to  buy  up 
the  sixteen  thousand  square  miles  of  deserted  farms 
in  New  York  and  New  England,  put  it  In  shape  for 
use,  and  then  resell  at  cost.  He  would  provide,  he 
said,  capital  for  the  purchasers  until  their  first  crops 


SOCIAL  SIDE  OF  COUNTRY  LIFE     285 

were  in  hand.  In  this  way  the  capitalist  is  striking 
hands  with  the  laboring  man  to  put  him  in  shape  for 
a  country  home. 

This  sort  of  cooperation,  begun  by  corn  trains,  has 
widened  into  a  very  strong  fellowship  between  agri- 
culture and  commerce.  It  is  eminently  wise,  for  the 
real  policy  of  the  industries  is  to  work  together. 
The  carrying  trade  cannot  overtax  the  producer  with- 
out injuring  itself.  All  peoples  and  all  classes 
thrive  together  or  they  suffer  together,  and  it  is  for- 
tunate that  the  leaders  of  our  industrial  system  are 
finding  this  out.  Mr.  B.  F.  Yoakum,  Chairman  of 
the  Frisco  System,  said  in  a  recent  address  before  the 
Farmer's  Education  and  Cooperative  Union,  "  The 
farmers  and  railroads  have  something  to  cooper- 
ate with  and  something  to  cooperate  for.  The 
heavy  reductions  in  freight  rates  of  the  last  few  years 
have  been  absorbed  by  middlemen  and  not  shared  by 
either  the  producers  or  the  consumers." 

Agricultural  education  which  had  been  confined  to 
the  colleges  and  their  bulletins  was  now  widened  by 
a  plan  of  educational  trains,  carrying  the  best  trained 
workers  across  the  country  from  town  to  town,  giving 
demonstrations  of  how  to  handle  milk  and  farm 
crops,  how  best  to  manage  the  soil,  in  what  way 
fertilizers  were  needed,  and  how  to  combat  insect 
pests  while  accepting  bird  alliance.  The  first  of 
these  trains  was,  I  think,  In  Illinois,  but  the  seventh 
or  eighth  crossed  the  Central  Lines  before  the  end 
of  1910. 


286     HOW  XO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

Naturally  this  new  era  of  good  will  led  on  from 
farm  trains  to  railroad  farms.  These  are  already 
established  by  several  of  the  leading  railroads,  with 
the  avowed  purpose  of  securing  the  drainage  of 
swamp  lands,  better  plowing,  with  implements  that 
will  bring  up  the  subsoil,  the  selection  of  seed  of  the 
best  varieties,  intensive  tillage  during  the  growing  of 
the  crops,  the  securing  of  a  large  amount  of  humus, 
preventing  barnyard  and  other  waste,  establishing  the 
value  of  crop  rotation,  with  winter  cover  crops  in 
the  North  and  summer  cover  crops  in  the  South,  the 
retention  of  only  the  best  animal  stock,  the  produc- 
tion of  food  for  men  and  animals  on  the  farm  itself, 
and  finally  the  keeping  of  careful  accounts  as  well 
as  accurate  memoranda  of  tests  and  their  results. 

Following  this  work  of  the  railroads,  the  States 
have  begun  the  solution  of  farm  problems  through 
collective  action.  Governor  Hadley  of  Missouri  is 
at  the  head  of  a  well-thought-out  plan,  whereby  that 
State  will  undertake  the  movement  of  the  congested 
crowd  out  to  farms,  owned  by  the  State  and  turned 
over  to  actual  settlers  at  cost  price.  The  proposi- 
tion is  to  assist  the  neophytes  until  tillage  has  become 
remunerative. 

Heretofore  State  action  has  been  confined  almost 
altogether  to  the  patronage  of  State  fairs.  These 
collections  of  the  people  and  their  products  were  at 
one  time  of  considerable  value.  They  are  of  less 
importance  at  the  present  day  because  we  do  not  need 
so  much  the  exhibition  of  horse  speed  and  immense 


SOCIAL  SIDE  OF  COUNTRY  LIFE     287 

vegetables  as  we  do  the  demonstration  of  soil  prob- 
lems and  the  best  way  of  making  timothy  grass  give 
us  four  tons  to  the  acre.  The  State  is  needed  at 
present  to  secure  sanitation,  industrial  education,  and 
carry  the  land  tiller  safely  through  crises. 

The  plan  as  it  will  be  prosecuted  by  Governor 
Hadley  is  based  on  a  general  fact  that  most  of  those 
who  are  anxious  to  leave  city  congestion  are  money- 
]ess  as  well  as  homeless.  It  is  very  fortunate  that 
this  is  so,  for  all  betterment  schemes  begin  with  those 
who  are  well-to-do.  The  wealthy  have  been  on  the 
move  for  many  years,  and  have  bought  up  large 
tracts  of  land.  Including  not  a  few  of  the  very  rich- 
est farms,  and  are  doing  with  them  nothing  at  all 
In  the  way  of  adding  to  the  production  of  the  country. 
They  create  beautiful  landscapes  and  elaborate 
houses,  but  that  Is  all.  Just  now  we  are  greatly  In 
need  of  Increasing  the  food  products  of  the  United 
States ;  and  the  poorer  classes  will  do  this,  while  add- 
ing to  their  own  comforts  and  creating  homes. 

Governor  Hadley  has  already  brought  about  a 
National  Farm  Homes  Association;  this  has  reached 
over  his  own  State  to  take  In  the  whole  Southwest, 
and  to  some  extent  the  whole  South.  Land  Is  pur- 
chased, as  It  can  be  In  large  sections,  especially  In 
Arkansas  and  Texas  and  Florida  and  Georgia,  at 
ten  dollars  an  acre  or  even  less.  It  is  then  divided 
into  forty  acre  farms,  thirty-two  of  these  being 
clustered  about  a  central  farm  of  one  hundred  and 
sixty  acres.     This  central  farm  becomes  the  residence 


288     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

of  a  skilled  agriculturist,  such  as  are  being  turned 
out  by  our  agricultural  colleges.  He  shall  have  gen- 
eral supervision  of  his  neighbors,  to  bring  about  the 
most  economical  and  thorough  methods  of  handling 
soil  and  crops,  coincident  with'  profit. 

In  other  words,  it  is  a  combination  of  school  and 
work,  very  similar  to  what  has  been  projected  for 
our  common  schools  themselves.  This  teacher  or 
head  of  the  system  will  attend  to  the  marketing  of 
products  and  will  steadily  lead  the  way  to  independ- 
ence, on  a  basis  of  good  judgment.  The  arrange- 
ment of  the  farms  is  such  as  to  bring  about  a  mutual 
exchange  of  social  courtesies,  mutual  helpfulness,  with 
games  in  common  as  well  as  work.  There  is  the 
germ  here  of  a  new  style  of  country  life  which  may 
go  much  farther. 

Here  are  the  figures;  land,  $400;  buildings  and 
fences,  $400;  stock  and  teams,  $300;  and  tools  at 
$100.  The  first  year  it  is  proposed  to  exempt  these 
purchasers  from  taxation.  Beginning  with  the  second 
year  they  will  be  expected  to  return  what  has  been 
advanced  to  them,  in  ten  yearly  Instalments.  This 
it  is  estimated  can  be  easily  done,  from  truck  farming, 
grass  and  grain  growing,  cattle  and  chickens. 

This  colony  system  is  fundamentally  sound.  Life 
in  the  city  is  reduced  to  a  comformity  that  makes  It 
nearly  Impossible  for  the  Individual  to  act  by  him- 
self. When  we  undertake  the  dissolution  of  the  con- 
gested mass  we  are  always  met  by  the  fact  that 
country  life  is  unendurably  lonesome.     There  is  also 


SOCIAL  SIDE  OF  COUNTRY  LIFE     289 

this  advantage  that  where  a  dozen  families  are 
planted  near  each  other  we  are  able  to  secure  a 
cooperation  in  industries  apart  from  agriculture. 
In  other  words,  we  establish  a  community  Instead 
of  a  family.  Two  families  going  out  together  and 
intending  to  occupy  twenty  acres  each  can  build 
their  houses  In  adjacent  corners  so  that  their  nelgh- 
borliness  may  be  felt,  especially  In  times  of  sickness. 
It  is  the  woman  that  suffers  most,  and  by  this  sort  of 
building  she  Is  not  cut  off  from  a  daily  chat  with  her 
neighbor. 

I  have  seen  this  scheme  carried  out  on  a  larger  scale 
by  four  families,  each  building  on  the  corner  of  a 
sixty  acre  lot.  Their  drives  ran  into  each  other, 
and  their  fields  were  separated  only  by  a  line  of 
wire.  These  four  families  had  a  common  kitchen, 
with  breakfast  room  and  broad  verandas  In  the  cen- 
ter of  the  plot.  There  Is  no  reason  why  every 
family  In  the  world  should  have  Its  own  food  labora- 
tory. By  combination  the  labor  Is  greatly  reduced 
and  the  cost  of  feeding  four  families  Is  cut  right  In 
two;  or  carry  this  plan  farther  to  a  group  of  eight 
or  twelve.  Indeed  It  might  be  made  to  cover  as 
many  country  homes  as  you  please,  only  considering 
convenience. 

Now  plant  your  union  school  at  the  most  con- 
venient and  central  point.  Organize  your  union 
church  and  allow  It  to  occupy  the  school  auditorium 
and  you  have  a  completed  community.  Or  you  may 
go  still  farther  and  have  your  community  bank  in 


290     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

conjunction  with  the  post-office.  Church  and  school 
are  not  really  two  offices  and  may  be  united  for  such 
a  community  as  we  suggest.  Of  course  our  aim  Is 
to  secure  moral  and  Intellectual  Improvement,  while 
we  train  the  young  people  to  the  broadest  ethical  aims, 
by  Intellectual  development. 

If  we  conceive  a  system  of  this  sort  developing 
we  shall  soon  find  a  Grange  organized,  holding  its 
weekly  meetings  In  the  same  school  building,  which 
Is  unoccupied  of  course  In  the  evening  for  school  pur- 
poses. The  Grange  keeps  the  families  in  close  al- 
liance and  It  may  cover  the  general  subject  of  town 
improvement,  or  there  may  be  separately  a  rural  art 
society.  This  last  association  will  have  for  Its  aim 
to  study  road  improvement,  yard  Improvement,  house 
painting,  fruit  growing,  and  all  other  local  questions 
that  pertain  to  the  indoor  or  outdoor  comfort  and 
wealth. 

This  sort  of  community,  made  up  of  recent  recruits 
from  city  life,  we  must  presume  to  have  brought  with 
it  a  good  deal  of  taste  for  music,  architecture,  and 
some  of  those  refinements  which  we  can  very  cor- 
dially welcome  into  country  life.  With  all  the  rest, 
a  tree  commission  should  be  appointed,  so  that  the 
neighborhood  and  street  vegetation  shall  not  be  muti- 
lated. One  of  the  chief  troubles  just  now  in  the 
country  Is  the  utterly  misdirected  trimming  that  Is 
going  on.  We  cannot  presume  that  our  city  friends 
will  understand  trees  very  cordially  or  scientifically, 
but  in  every  community  there  Is  at  least  one  person 


SOCIAL  SIDE  OF  COUNTRY  LIFE     291 

to  whom  can  be  wisely  referred  this  matter  of  com- 
munity art. 

The  suggestion  of  a  cooperative  kitchen  is  not  en- 
tirely novel,  and  it  has  been  worked  out  in  more 
ways  than  one.  Not  long  since  I  came  upon  a  casual 
note  in  a  California  paper,  describing  a  kitchen  of  this 
sort  which  had  become  quite  the  center  of  a  consid- 
erable group  of  homes.  It  was  not  only  giving  satis- 
faction to  the  mothers  and  wives,  but  was  developing 
domestic  art  and  establishing  refinement  that  could 
scarcely  be  considered  in  Individual  homes.  The 
State  can  aid  along  these  lines  not  only  by  its  free 
mail  delivery  and  Its  school  system  and  its  postal 
savings  bank,  but  doubtless  may  do  a  good  deal,  as 
Missouri  proposes,  to  carry  the  settlers  over  the  in- 
itial crisis.  Such  a  movement,  however,  must  slip 
naturally  into  the  hands  of  the  people  Involved. 

Cooperation  in  drainage  would  seem  to  be  so  rea- 
sonable as  to  find  no  opposition,  but  a  sewer  rarely 
gets  through  a  line  of  neighbors  into  a  proper  outlet 
without  opposition.  The  same  difficulty  occurs  with 
pumping  water  for  community  purposes  from  springs 
that  lie  among  the  hills.  It  is  of  the  utmost  impor- 
tance that  there  shall  be  an  abundance  of  pure  water 
and  the  most  sanitary  disposal  of  waste.  Unless 
you  can  have  an  artesian  well,  dropped  down  deep 
into  rock  and  planted  above  possible  Infection,  there 
must  be  cooperative  water  supplies.  Your  city  col- 
ony will  come  with  an  instinct  for  this  sort  of  united 
action. 


292     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

To  rid  a  neighborhood  of  insects  also  requires 
the  fullest  unity  of  action.  One  stable  left  un- 
cleaned  will  infect  a  mile  square  with  flies.  One 
mosquito  breeding  cesspool  is  enough  to  infect  fully 
as  large  a  neighborhood  with  that  pest.  A  com- 
bined effort  in  any  community  in  the  use  of  kerosene 
would  entirely  rid  us  of  both  flies  and  mosquitoes  in 
a  very  short  time.  We  have  unnecessarily  become 
tolerant  of  dangerous  enemies.  If  you  have  a  small 
lake,  stock  it  with  fish  that  will  eat  larvae. 

There  is  no  reason  why  cooperation  should  not 
go  somewhat  farther,  without  encroaching  on  inte- 
gral home  life.  Building  in  the  country  should  not 
defy  the  very  spirit  of  independent  home  life;  a  real 
house  is  a  growth  of  the  self,  of  our  feelings  and 
our  aspirations.  It  is  also  a  child  of  the  spot  that 
it  occupies.  A  Mr.  Edgar  S.  Chambless  has  invented 
what  he  calls  an  endless  house.  It  may  be  as  long  as 
you  please,  and  on  paper  it  looks  like  the  Chinese 
Wall,  or  a  modernized  cliff-dwellers'  establishment. 
It  is  to  be  of  cement,  with  a  railroad  in  the  basement, 
as  well  as  any  number  of  elevators.  It  will  have  the 
best  of  water  supply  and  perfect  sewerage.  It  will 
be  lighted  by  electricity  and  heated  by  the  same 
power. 

This  plan  would  save  the  hucksters  and  farmers 
from  driving  from  house  to  house.  Engineering  up 
hill,  however,  and  across  valleys  with  a  house  wall 
would  be  liable  to  meet  some  facts  of  a  stern  sort. 
Still,  cooperative  building  Is  likely  to  win  consider- 


SOCIAL  SIDE  OF  COUNTRY  LIFE     293 

able  progress,  as  inventions  multiply,  not  only  in 
number  but  in  cost.  Mr.  Edison's  concrete  house 
that  is  to  be  cast  in  a  mould  and  served  up  to  each 
family,  much  as  grave  stones  are  furnished  to  the 
dead,  has  also  some  features  to  commend  it.  Its 
adoption  would  at  least  serve  to  get  rid  of  many 
of  the  unmeaning  stractures  which  are  now  occupied 
by  country  home  makers  as  mansions. 

Intensive  farming  we  understand  to  be  the  tillage 
of  a  small  lot  in  such  a  way  as  to  get  as  much  from 
It  as  others  get  from  ten  times  the  acreage.  This 
brings  us  very  much  closer  together.  Big  pastures 
disappear  and  great  meadows  are  cut  in  slices,  while 
the  mile  long  corn  fields  are  subdivided  into  apple 
orchards,  berry  gardens,  and  truck  patches.  It  is  a 
grand  fact  about  American  tillage  that  great  cattle 
ranges  are  passing  out  very  rapidly,  while  the  same 
number  of  cows  are  fed  by  green  soiling  and  silage. 
From  these  small  homesteads,  asparagus,  lettuce,  and 
celery,  followed  by  beans,  potatoes,  and  melons,  keep 
the  cars  loaded  nearly  all  the  year  round. 

As  the  century  gets  Into  the  twenties  and  thirties 
there  will  be  double  and  then  treble  the  number  of 
country  residences.  Our  cities  will  not  grow  smaller, 
except  relatively.  If  you  believe  the  present  con- 
gestion Is  to  be  tolerated,  I  am  confident  that  you 
are  mistaken.  Cities  will  widen  out  and  open  with 
great  rifts  of  trees  and  sodded  playgrounds,  beside 
gardens  Innumerable.  Skyscrapers  are  a  mood,  not 
a  need,  and  will  follow  the  tower  of  Babel,     The  fu- 


294     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

ture  city  will  cover  three  times  the  present  space, 
with  the  same  population. 

The  automobile,  or  its  successor,  will  have  a  little 
chance  of  free  motion  without  killing  old  people  and 
children.  Horses  will  be  out  of  the  problem,  ex- 
cept for  the  pleasure  of  those  who  love  animal 
friends  better  than  they  love  machinery.  Aerial 
transit  will  deliver  most  of  the  goods  that  are  sold 
and  allow  the  storage  houses  and  stores  to  be  at  a 
much  greater  distance  from  the  shoppers. 

Suburbanism  will  spread  out  for  miles  beyond  the 
core  of  population,  and  every  home  will  be  sur- 
rounded by  its  adequate  garden.  Still  farther  from 
the  roar  will  be  the  intensive  garden  and  farm,  and 
you  will  find  a  population  of  six  hundred  millions, 
well  fed  and  housed,  without  isolation  and  without 
crowding.  We  have  made  immense  strides  in  the 
way  of  tools  and  trolleys, —  something  to  work  with 
in  the  soil  and  vehicles  to  convey  our  produce  to 
market.  Mr.  Edison  is  now  testing  the  limits  of 
his  storage  battery  that  will  need  charging  only 
once  in  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles.  We  are  not 
very  far  from  a  motor  that  will  carry  our  produce 
to  market  at  an  insignificant  cost. 

I  believe  in  private  customers  as  far  as  possible, 
but  for  the  majority  of  the  producers  this  is  impos- 
sible as  things  are.  Our  surplus  goes  to  middle- 
men, whose  interest  is  of  course  to  get  a  large  share 
of  the  profits  for  themselves.  Neither  do  they  un- 
derstand how  to  handle  my  pears  and  your  strawber- 


SOCIAL  SIDE  OF  COUNTRY  LIFE     295 

ries  in  such  a  way  as  to  bring  them  to  the  consumers 
without  loss.  We  shall  see  the  vehicle  before  long 
that  will  speed  the  producer  to  the  consumer,  over 
a  distance  of  twenty-five  or  thirty  miles  each  morn- 
ing. 

Our  present  limitations  for  producers  who  must 
touch  customers  early  in  the  day  is  about  ten  miles  — 
possibly  twenty  for  non-perishable  products.  This 
creates  a  narrow  zone  about  each  city,  outside  of 
which  there  is  a  very  restricted  opportunity  for  the 
gardener  and  orchardist.  We  need  and  must  have 
this  zone  widened  to  forty  or  fifty  miles.  In  that 
way  we  shall  equalize  conditions,  and  turn  the  whole 
land  into  one  overspread  garden.  The  automobile 
points  the  way  to  this  most  desirable  country  life. 
We  must  have  State  roads,  smooth  for  transit,  so 
that  produce  wagons  may  reach  a  safe  speed  of 
twelve  miles  an  hour. 

But  are  we  quite  sure,  in  this  forest  of  telephones, 
trolleys,  autos,  and  other  discoveries  and  Inventions 
that  are  crowding  the  beginning  of  the  twentieth 
century,  that  ere  long  city  purchasers  will  not  come 
our  way  more  than  we  go  theirs,  speeding  among  the 
country  homes,  before  breakfast,  to  find  what  they 
want  for  the  day's  supply.  Instead  of  waiting  to  have 
it  brought  to  their  doors?  It  is  not  quite  clear  how 
far  aviation  may  help  along  this  line. 

We  shall  plow  together  and  reap  together  and 
possibly  store  together.  Why  not?  We  do  this 
as  soon  as  our  goods  leave  home ;  why  Is  it  Impossible 


296     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

as  soon  as  they  are  harvested?  Is  it  after  all  a  per- 
manent necessity  that  each  and  every  country  home 
shall  have  its  own  separate  barns  and  storage  cellars  ? 
When  grain  is  threshed  cooperatively  and  marketed 
cooperatively;  when  all  of  our  homes  have  swift  mo- 
tors, adjusted  to  farm  work,  why  may  there  not  be 
grain  elevators  for  an  associated  group  of  homes 
and  fruit  storage  houses  for  a  whole  group  of  fami- 
lies? I  am  not  so  sure  but  that  the  future  country 
home  will  lose  its  barns,  as  I  have  suggested  it  may 
also  lose  its  kitchen  and  its  cellars.  This  would  cer- 
tainly contribute  greatly  to  the  esthetic  side,  as  well 
as  to  the  sanitary  side  of  country  home  making. 
There  would  be  no  lack  of  individualism  if  social 
life  should  go  even  farther. 

One  thing  is  assured:  the  dream  of  the  farmer 
has  greatly  changed  of  late.  His  vision  is  no  longer 
that  of  an  isolated  house,  quite  distinctly  severed 
from  association  with  its  neighbors,  and  while  in  one 
sense  complete  by  itself,  seriously  lacking  in  its  power 
to  move  with  the  world's  evolution.  He  begins  to 
think  of  a  parked  farm  community,  raying  out  from  a 
central  school  and  library  and  closely  associated  m 
almost  all  conceivable  ways  through  miles  of  extent. 
The  vision  does  not  as  yet  go  beyond  the  rural  free 
delivery  of  mail  and  the  use  of  automobiles  for  mar- 
ket purposes  and  for  tillage,  but  he  has  an  enthusi- 
asm over  something  that  is  to  make  countiy  life 
marvelously  beautiful  and  rob  it  of  Its  most  severe 
features  of  isolation  and  toiL 


SOCIAL  SIDE  OF  COUNTRY  LIFE     297 

These  dreams  are  likely  to  lead  him  into  schemes 
that  are  half  thought  out  and  to  put  him  into  the 
power  of  heartless  speculators.  In  bidding  good- 
bye to  my  readers  I  wish  to  remind  them  that  I  have 
already  warned  them  that  they  should  rarely  buy 
land  that  they  have  not  themselves  Inspected,  and  that 
a  large  part  of  the  speculative  projects  for  country 
home  making  in  common  are  treacherous  efforts  to 
get  the  money  of  the  common  people  without  any 
adequate  returns. 

As  Immigration  comes  to  a  final  balance  and  there 
Is  no  longer  a  rush  of  the  dissimilar  and  undigested 
social  element,  we  shall  react  to  a  nearer  social  equal- 
ity. Many  years  ago  our  fathers  were  on  a  level; 
we  will  be  on  another,  but  a  higher  level.  Better 
tools  always  mean  better  men  and  women;  and  better 
folk  In  turn  mean  better  fruit  and  better  animals  — 
more  intelligent  cooperation  between  all  that  goes 
to  make  up  the  country  home,  dogs,  horses,  bees, 
birds,  flowers,  fruit,  and  human  folk.  Every  relic  of 
barbarism  tends  naturally  to  drop  off;  thorns  will  be 
eliminated  from  berries  as  well  as  roses ;  strawberries 
will  be  as  large  as  pears,  and  blackberries  will  grow 
without  spines.  Progress  Is  not  a  chance  achieve- 
ment, but  the  law  of  Nature  as  applied  to  horti- 
culture. 

We  shall  master  even  climate  after  awhile.  We 
are  already  reaching  out  in  this  direction,  by  the  con- 
servation of  our  forests  and  the  drainage  of  our 
swamps.     Things  have  gone  heretofore  on  this  conti- 


298     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

nent  very  much  haphazard.  A  few  men  have  been 
allowed  to  destroy  the  wind-breaks  of  vast  territo- 
ries, allowing  the  blizzard  to  sweep  over  territory 
that  God  protected  by  forests.  Clean  down  to  Flor- 
ida the  oaks  and  the  pines  have  been  wasted,  till 
there  is  nothing  to  stop  the  fury  of  a  storm  that  be- 
gins in  Alaska.  If  you  should  ask  me  for  some 
specific  term  by  which  to  designate  the  coming  era, 
I  would  call  it  the  era  of  wind-breaks  —  the  time 
when  everyone  will  understand  the  sacredness  of 
trees  and  will  know  their  social  importance. 

The  more  you  study  this  matter  the  more  you  will 
be  confirmed  in  the  view  that  Nature  has  ordered 
cooperation  everywhere,  and  when  it  comes  about 
that  we  appreciate  fully  our  social  duty  and  civic 
obligation,  there  will  be  a  deal  less  failure  to  win  a 
good  living.  The  country  home  is  in  reality  an  alli- 
ance, a  treaty  not  only  of  peace  but  of  friendship 
between  all  things  that  live  and  the  Life  that  per- 
meates all  things.  I  should  like  to  have  you  read 
"  Mutual  Aid,"  a  book  written  by  Prince  Kropotkin, 
for  it  shows  how  fundamentally  the  law  of  good 
will  operates  through  Nature.  Antagonism  is  not 
at  all  a  controlling  principle,  and  there  is  nothing 
that  shows  this  better  than  a  true  country  home, 
where  collies  and  cows  cooperate,  bees  and  flowers 
associate,  and  over  all  and  through  all  presides  the 
good  will  of  the  human  director.  Darwin  has  shown 
how  even  the  angleworms  serve  as  plowmen  and  sub- 
soilers. 


SOCIAL  SIDE  OF  COUNTRY  LIFE     299 

If  you  think  we  are  at  an  end  of  evolution  you  are 
mistaken.  I'he  parcels  post  has  got  Into  every  po- 
litical platform  and  Is  acknowledged  by  all  parties 
as  a  social  necessity.  Telephones  are  probably  as 
cheaply  afforded  as  possible  already,  but  there  is  no 
reason  why  they  shall  not  transmit  to  a  group  of 
homes  lectures  and  debates.  The  telephone  tea 
party  I  have  already  mentioned,  but  it  Is  In  all  sober- 
ness a  part  of  coming  country  life,  when  our  homes 
will  be  something  more  than  individual  retreats, 
when  they  can  be  practically,  if  temporarily,  lecture 
halls.  The  school  will  no  doubt  yet  be,  in  this  way, 
so  associated  with  our  homes  that  the  old  and  the 
young  will  be  at  school  together. 

The  agricultural  college  is  steadily  becoming  asso- 
ciated with  farms  and  is  likely  to  go  much  farther  in 
the  same  direction.  It  really  is  itself  a  great  farm, 
thoroughly  practical  and  experimental.  The  pro- 
fessors of  gardening  and  agronomy  become  naturally 
associated  with  us  In  our  outdoor  work,  while  Indoors 
we  have  a  new  sort  of  trained  leaders  In  domestic 
economy  and  domestic  science.  As'  a  matter  of  fact, 
these  men  and  women  are  taking  their  places  as  so- 
cial leaders,  not  as  mere  recluses  or  scholars,  but 
knowing  the  practical  things  that  make  for  prosper- 
ity, they  teach  It  to  the  people.  College  is  hardly  a 
descriptive  name  for  these  institutions,  for  that  word 
has  become  Identified  too  closely  with  schools  where 
scholarship  Is  the  end  and  not  the  means. 

Mr.  Roosevelt  In  one  of  his  most  pungent  ad- 


300     HOW  TO  LIVE  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

dresses,  says,  "  I  warn  my  countrymen  that  the  great 
recent  progress  made  in  city  life  is  not  a  full  measure 
of  our  civilization;  for  our  civilization  rests  at  bottom 
on  the  wholesomeness,  the  attractiveness,  and  the  com- 
pleteness, as  well  as  the  prosperity  of  life  in  the 
country.  The  men  and  women  on  the  farms  stand 
for  what  is  fundamentally  best  and  most  needed  in 
our  American  life.  Upon  the  development  of  coun- 
try life  rests  ultimately  our  ability,  by  methods  of 
farming  requiring  the  highest  intelligence,  to  continue 
to  clothe  and  feed  the  hungry  nations;  to  supply  the 
cities  with  fresh  blood,  clean  bodies  and  clear  brains, 
that  can  endure  the  strain  of  modern  life;  we  need 
the  development  of  men  in  the  open  country,  who 
shall  be  the  stay  and  strength  of  the  nation." 

I  advise  you  to  get  a  home  in  the  country,  not  only 
for  your  individual  comfort,  but  because  it  places 
you  in  a  relation  to  the  world  of  high  responsibility. 
I  advise  you  to  educate  your  boys  and  girls  for  the 
most  intelligent  farm  life.  I  advise  you  to  stop  glori- 
fying worklessness  and  honor  achievement.  Work 
goes  beyond  economics;  it  is  God-like.  It  is  not  a 
myth  of  history  that  the  divine  mind  planted  a  gar- 
den. "  My  Father,"  said  Jesus,  "  is  a  worker  and  I 
also  work."  Luther  graved  on  his  seal,  "  Lahorare 
est  orare^  to  work  is  to  worship.  This  great  move- 
ment outward  from  congested  life  must  be  under- 
stood in  its  breadth  as  well  as  its  intensity.  It  is  to 
make  the  American  Republic  safer  and  stronger,  as 
well  as  natural  life  more  wholesome. 


MAR  2 


6  2003 


Jui'v  i  -j  -.-fc. 


BOSTON  COLLEGE 


3  9031   01752851 


